bittersweet
by Hannah4
Summary: *CHAPTER 9 UP*Ginny is finally in her fifth year and still has a very big crush on Harry. In her attempts to get Harry's attention, she get's someone elses. G/D fic. Please R/R
1. Default Chapter

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****I own nothing! Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling! She is a spectacular author and I love her writings!

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Chapter 1, Changes

A young girl peered out her bedroom window and sighed softly. She absent-mindedly brushed a strand of scarlet hair from her shimmering brown eyes.

She didn't understand boys, they were everywhere and she lived in a house full of boys. Yet still, Ginny Weasley could not understand them. 

She was supposed to be finishing an essay on Goblin Rebellions but the hot sun… and _other_ things were distracting her. Ginny sighed once again and stretched out her long fair skinned legs. Her lashes fluttered oddly and she turned her attention once again to the front yard where her brother Ron, Harry Potter, and Hermione Granger were seated beside each other on the green grass.

She didn't understand how you could change so much once you turned sixteen. Harry certainly had. He was taller and tanned darkly, and Ginny had been amazed to find that he had become very built. Perhaps she hadn't noticed it before, but when he had arrived in shorts and a T-shirt that summer she had. 

His black hair was shining in the bright sunlight and behind his glasses his brilliant green eyes shone. From his side her brother was seated and he ran a hand through his flaming red hair. He had also changed, she noticed. He had spent so much time outdoors that summer that he was darkly tanned and his freckles were barely noticeable. He seemed to tower over almost everyone, but Fred and George still teased him as much as before. 

It wasn't fair to Ginny, because her best friend Hermione, had also changed over the summer. She now let her hair curl about her slender shoulders and as she was always tanned her amber eyes stood out just as vibrantly as before. Yet Hermione seemed to have become all legs and attracted attention from everyone around her.

Ginny furrowed her brow thoughtfully, she was only a year younger then them, why hadn't she changed? Maybe she had… but Harry just hadn't noticed because she was only his best friend's little sister.

Ginny scowled and quickly closed the blinds. She stormed across her dreadfully clean bedroom and stood in front of her long cracked mirror.

'I'm sort of pretty', she thought gazing at her reflection. 'Aren't I?'

Ginny was quite tiny and thin in fact. She only reached the small height of 5'2 while Hermione had seemed to have grown to 5'6 over the summer. She was fair skinned and even though she didn't have as many freckles as everyone else did in her family, they were still there. They speckled across her cheeks and the top of her nose.

Her scarlet hair went in small waves, like the ripples in a pond, to the middle of her back. Her brown eyes were vibrant and deep surrounded by thick golden lashes. She stared at her appearance for a moment longer, dressed in shorts and a red T-shirt.

'Who am I kidding', she thought bitterly. 'I'm as ugly as can be'.

She turned away from her reflection in disgust and flopped back down on her bed in misery. She looked up at her calendar to find that there was only a week left for school, and she still needed to get her school supplies… Maybe this year she wouldn't need to get everything second hand. Everyone had graduated except for her and Ron now.

Wednesday came shortly and soon everyone was seated at the breakfast able looking sleepy but well-fed. Ginny glanced up from her eggs every few seconds to gaze at Harry who was in an animated conversation about Quidditch with Ron. Harry, just before going into fifth year, was promoted to being captain of the Gryffindor Team. Nearly all of the old players had graduated the year before so only Harry and Ron were left. Ron had become Keeper during fifth year and he was exceptionally good, to everyone's surprise. 

"Harry", Ginny piped up for the first time that morning.

Harry turned and grinned, his eyes twinkled making Ginny feel as though her entire body had just turned to jello.

"Which positions are open on the Gryffindor Team now?" She asked.

Harry frowned slightly. "I wish the old team hadn't of graduated, they were all really exceptional players. Now all three chasers positions are open, as well as both the beater positions. I guess I'll be holding try outs in early September for them".

"Oh", Ginny squeaked and looked down at her food, feeling her face glowing a bright red.

'Five positions are open', she thought. 'I wonder if we'll win this year… maybe I should try out for a chaser. Maybe I'd impress Harry if I became a chaser! Oh… but I don't know if I'm any good. Besides', she thought darkly. 'Cho Chang is still the Ravenclaw Seeker, she'd impress him way better then me any day'.

"Seamus said that he would like to try out", Hermione said breaking into Ginny's thoughts. "He wrote me a letter this summer, and Dean said the same thing. They're thinking about being beaters".

Harry and Ron both sniggered. "They'd be fun to have on the team", Ron said through a mouth of eggs. "But I doubt they'd be any good".

"Why is that?" Hermione asked obviously irritated with their lack of enthusiasm over the two boys.

"Just cause", Harry said with a laugh and bit into a piece of toast so he wouldn't have to say anymore.

"Alright you four!" Mrs. Weasley said with a sigh hurrying into the kitchen. "We've got a lot of shopping to do today! Hurry up now! Hurry up!"

"Yes mum", Ginny said obediently and jumped up to go and find her school cloak.

When Ginny appeared in Diagon Alley she gagged through a mouth full of soot. She fell to her knees and coughed until her throat burned. From behind her Ron appeared suddenly, tripped over her, and fell hard on his stomach.

"Ginny!" He snapped angrily.

The last to arrive was Mrs. Weasley who simply stepped over the jumble of teenagers who had fallen over each other one after the other. Hermione pulled Ginny to her feet and both the girls examined each other before laughing. Both were covered in ash and soot.

The five stood for a minute brushing their clothing, and were all unsuccessful of getting rid of all the black substance on their clothing. Ginny frowned trying her best to beat away the black soot that had embedded itself upon her short jean overalls. Her pink T-shirt no longer seemed cute but ragged and dirty.

She ran her fingers through her scarlet hair and scowled to find bits of ash entangled within it.

"Come on Ginny, we've got to get you some new robes", Mrs. Weasley informed her. "You've grown an inch or so over the last year".

"Really?" Ginny asked excitedly. "Alright".

"See you later Ginny".

Ginny turned and watched with suddenly sad eyes as Hermione, Harry, and Ron walked off together, all smiling and laughing looking as though they had been made for each other. Ginny wondered if she would ever be walking with them someday, and people would look at them and think the same thing she did.

Ginny lowered her eyes and began to walk slowly after her mother who was quickly walking through the crowds, her large handbag swinging.

Draco Malfoy scowled darkly at the crowds in Diagon Alley. Every single year it was filled with students attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He despised crowds and more commonly who was in the crowds.

His father was away on _business _of sorts that week, so Draco's mother Narcissa had brought him, only to quickly leave and disappear into a book store full of romance novels. Draco preferred being alone however.

At the moment he was being fitted for new school robes, he had grown even taller over the summer and had been needing them for a while now. Madame Malkin was hurrying about him in a frenzy but she was always cheerful and smiled brightly at him when she finished, even though he did not return the smile.

"There you go Mr. Malfoy", she said handing him the bag as he in return handed her the galleons for his robes. "Have a nice day and fine school year".

Draco suppressed a snort of laughter at this comment and walked towards the door. Just as he was about to open the door it swung open and a plump woman with flaming red hair, and an overly large handbag rushed in. 

"Weasley", he hissed in disgust as the woman rushed past him. 

From behind her mother, tiny Ginny Weasley appeared with her head down, as usual. She had her scarlet hair nearly straight that day and it was held back with small clips. She had her Hogwarts cloak on and underneath she wore a pink T-shirt and jean overalls. Both she and her mother had soot and ash on them and he snickered as he shoved rudely past Ginny who gasped and stumbled backwards into the doorway.

"Malfoy you scum!" He heard her snap at him from behind.

Draco sneered but continued on his way. If one Weasley was there, then the 'Weasel', Potter, and Granger, would be there as well.

Sure enough as he continued walking through the crowds he found Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger walking out of Flourish and Blotts. Draco had to pause for a moment to actually believe what he was seeing.

'Damn Granger', he thought looking at her long legs that seemed to have grown five inches during the summer.

Draco walked coolly up to the trio and Granger was the first to notice he had come. She wrinkled her nose in disgust and tugged on Ron's sleeve and whispered something that they both snickered at, before all three turned and glared at him.

Draco smirked coldly at the three and flicked a loose strand of white blonde hair from his grey blue eyes.

"Well well", he said coldly. "Look who is, Potter and his sidekicks the Weasel and the Walking Encyclopaedia".

"Oh that was witty Malfoy", Hermione said coldly.

"Shut-up mud blood", Draco hissed in return.

"Where are your little cronies anyway Malfoy?" Harry asked him coldly. "Not here to protect you are they? I'm surprised you had the guts to come over here and say anything".

"Hey Weasley", Draco said icily with flashing eyes, choosing to ignore Harry. "Your sister better watch her mouth, or something bad might happen to her this year".

Ron's eyes flashed dangerously and he began to walk forward but Hermione and Harry both grabbed him by the shoulders and held him back.

"Shut-your-mouth Malfoy!" Ron snapped. "Don't you threaten my sister".

"Touchy are we?" Draco laughed. 

"Malfoy just go away", Granger said darkly with narrowed eyes.

"Oh I wouldn't dream of taking up to much of your time", he took in Ron's appearance. "You'd better get some new robes Weasley, or can your family only afford new robes for only one person in the family at a time? Perhaps your sister can lend hers to you when she's done with them. You didn't have a problem with using her dress robes fourth year".

Ron appeared as though he was going to rip Malfoy's head off if he could get the chance. All three Gryffindor's were looking venomous but Draco simply turned and walked away, disappearing into the crowds.

After Draco had disappeared both Harry and Hermione let go of Ron who was shaking with anger.

"If he says anything about my family this year, I'm going to break his neck", Ron snapped. "He better not touch Ginny".

"Draco wouldn't go near Ginny, don't worry Ron", Hermione assured him gently.

"He's only saying that to get you worked up, ignore him next time", Harry added.

Ron looked thoughtful for a moment. He didn't know, Draco was capable of ruining everyone's lives… he didn't want Draco to ruin Ginny's.

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*** A/N here it is! My first chapter! I hope you liked it! Please read and review and tell me what you thought of it!


	2. First Day Back

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****I own nothing! Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling except for Rylie, Leikela, Dinah, and Katherine whom were my own creations! 

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Chapter 2, First Day Back

Ginny, with Hermione beside her, hurried through the gateway onto platform 9¾. They only had five minutes to spare before the scarlet steam engine would leave. Both girls hurriedly pushed their trolley's forward and soon their things were being placed quickly into the side compartments. Harry and Ron joined them a moment later and then Mrs. Weasley showered the four of them in loving kisses.

"Mum we have to go", Ron said trying to tug away from his mother.

"Yes, yes", she said with a sigh. "The four of you behave yourselves! Ron! Harry! I mean it, I don't want a letter this year!"

"Yes mum!"

The four students hurried onto the train just as it had started to leave. Ginny sighed and followed the three down the hall and past full compartments of chattering Hogwarts students.

They quickly found an empty compartment and slid the door shut. Ginny flopped down into a seat and sighed gratefully. The entire morning had been rushed and Ginny found herself out of breath. Beside her Hermione was leaning against the window with her eyes closed.

"I was never this rushed at my house", Ginny heard her murmur and Ginny chuckled.

Harry and Ron sank down into seats opposite of the two girls and then began to have a deeply in depth conversation about Quidditch once again.

Ginny stared at them in disbelief for a moment before shaking her head.

"Is that all they ever talk about?" She asked Hermione who was opening up on of her school books.

Hermione looked up at the two boys and then grinned and laughed.

"Yes, or they're talking about something that could get us killed".

Hermione shook her head lightly and then began to scan the pages of her glossy new transfiguration book. Ginny sighed and knew that she wouldn't be getting any conversations in with Hermione, or the two boys… Maybe if she made the Gryffindor team she'd be able to join in with the boys. But not just yet.

Ginny slowly stood up and walked to the compartment door.

"Where are you going Ginny?" Harry's curious voice from behind her asked.

Ginny felt her face burn with colour so she didn't turn around.

"Oh… I'm just going to go and see if I can find any of the fifth year girls".

She hurriedly left the compartment and slid the door shut with a snap. Just as she lifted her head however their was a blinding flash and Ginny could only see splotches all around her.

"Collin!" She groaned rubbing her eyes. "What are you doing?"

"Hey Ginny", a mouse-like boy standing in front of her said cheerfully. "I decided that I should take pictures of people when they're not expecting it or when they don't know it, I think it's more natural".

"Oh", she muttered rubbing her eyes until she could see properly once again. "How was your summer?"

The two began to walk slowly down the train hall together. Collin shrugged but looked quite happy.

"It was okay Gin", he said happily. "I made another photo album. My parents love it. What about you? Did you do anything this summer?"

"Not really", Ginny said but felt herself blush, since she had spent most of the summer gazing out at Harry. "I got new robes", she then said happily.

"Great", Collin said with a grin. "I can't wait to see them, I'm going to go see if I can get a picture of Harry okay? And when you have your new robes on, I'm going to take lots of pictures of you!"

"Okay", she said with a nod and Collin hurried away, back to the other side of the train.

Ginny sighed and pushed her hands into her jean pockets. She stared down at her old sneakers and began to walk towards the compartment that the fifth year girls always took. However when she was walking she did not notice a compartment door just in front of her slide open.

Draco Malfoy and his goons, Crabbe and Goyle, emerged and Ginny walked straight into an unsuspecting Malfoy. Ginny stumbled backwards as she had the last time she had met with Malfoy, but this time she fell hard to the ground with a loud thump.

Crabbe and Goyle laughed stupidly and Malfoy looked down at her with the deepest look of annoyance.

Ginny looked up at him with her brown eyes wide. Draco had grown very tall and had become quite built over the summer as well, he towered over Ginny. He was already dressed in his school robes and uniform. His white blonde hair was slicked back as usual and his grey eyes compared to his pale skin seemed almost bright.

"Watch where you're going Weasley", he spat as though she were something disgusting no one wanted to look at.

"You watch where you're going Malfoy!" She barked back surprising herself as she pushed herself quickly up off the ground, she knew her cheeks were bright red.

Ginny then felt herself pale, she did indeed have her wand on her, but Malfoy was older and taller then her. He was at least a complete head taller then herself, and his friends were even taller then him.

Malfoy's eyes flickered at her comment and he stared down at her with distaste.

"Move Weasley", he said in a cold whisper that seemed to linger in the air.

Ginny stood frozen to the spot unaware of what she should do. As though something flicked her mind on, Ginny quickly jumped out of the way, her heart thumping fearfully, unsure whether or not she was going to be cursed.

Malfoy glared darkly at her as he and his friends swept past and Ginny trembled feeling her legs become weak beneath her. She couldn't believe she had just spoken back to the cruellest boy in school _ by herself_.

Ginny shuttered before hurrying away and quickly walking through into a compartment. She slid the door shut with a bang and turned to find three girls staring up at her with questioning eyes.

"You alright Gin?" A pretty Hawaiian girl, named Leikela Lokelani, asked with a raised brow. 

"Fine", Ginny said though she knew she must look pale and shaky.

The other two girls seated in her midst was a very tall, very thin, blonde girl with glasses named Dinah Stobbart. The other was a plump brunette with dazzling fire-like eyes named Katherine Reaveley.

"Good", Dinah said and patted the seat beside her, and Ginny took it gratefully. "You came just in time Ginny, we were all just deciding on our plan".

"Plan?" She asked giving the three girls a bewildered look.

"Ginny!" Katherine snapped irritably. "We've been talking about it all summer! Remember, our plan to get Collin Creevey to ask Dinah out".

"Oh yeah", Ginny said unenthusiastically. 

She hadn't had the heart to tell the three girls before her that they had no hope in getting Collin to notice anyone or anything. The only thing he loved was his camera… 

'Or'… Ginny thought with a grin. 'Harry'.

Dinah however had liked Collin for the last year and it was the only thing she would ever talk about. Ginny, whom had liked Harry since before she had met him, didn't even talk about her crush with these three girls. She didn't like them as much as Hermione, and she had to admit to herself, that she enjoyed spending more time with Ron then with them. They irritated her.

"So I was thinking that we could all start walking beside Collin to one of our classes", Leikela began happily. "And then Katherine could say something like, oh I forgot something back in the dorm. Gin, Leikela, want to come back with me. Then the three of us could walk away with Katherine, and leave Collin and Dinah alone together".

Ginny had a hard time suppressing the laughter that was rising up inside of her. Her ribs soon began to ache and she felt as though she was going to be sick. She never thought Collin and Dinah would look good together, she was about two feet taller then him.

"Gin? Ginny what do you think?" Leikela asked breaking into her thoughts. "Are you alright? You look like you're going to be sick".

"Uh… yeah I'm fine", Ginny said quickly. "It's an okay plan".

Ginny closed her eyes and pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms tightly around them. It was such a stupid plan, if Collin didn't notice her now, why was he going to notice her if she was just standing beside him. Dinah wouldn't _ say_ anything to him.

Harry at least spoke to Ginny, that was a start. They did have conversations, and not just stupid ones either. Sometimes they were actually quite interesting.

Ginny stood up after a moment and the three girls looked up at her with curiosity.

"I think I'm going to go and get changed into my school robes", and she left their compartment.

The train ride was shorter then usual and soon enough Draco was strutting down the hall with Pansy at his heel, as usual. Crabbe and Goyle were hurrying after him as they entered the Great Hall.

Draco looked towards the Gryffindor table and saw four people he despised with all his might. Potter, Weasley, and Granger were just taking their seats with Ginny Weasley seated right beside them. She seemed tiny and pale compared to the others, but she was smiling brightly… yet she looked out place, as though she didn't belong at all with them.

He scowled darkly and then suddenly two hands slid about his shoulders and someone was leaning over him and glaring in the same direction as he. Pansy had grown to be about the same height as Draco but she still had a face like a pug.

Her dark hair was spun atop her head, only tiny wisps of hair sticking out from under her black hat were visible.   
"They make me sick", she said and wrinkled her nose, if possible, making her more unattractive then she already was.

Draco simply nodded before the four made their way towards the Slytherin table and sank down into their seats.

The sorting began and there was only nineteen new students attending school. Six in Hufflepuff, three in Gryffindor, six in Slytherin, and four in Ravenclaw. Draco grinned at the turn out, the supply of Gryffindor's seemed to be wearing thin. 

"When can we eat?" Goyle grumbled impatiently. "Get the sorting over with already".

Dumbledore stood, made his announcements, and he smiled brightly at them all.

"Now let me announce that Quidditch try outs will be this month on the seventeenth to the twenty-first after classes", Dumbledore announced cheerfully and an excited whisper swept through the tables of students. "They will go in this order, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, and Slytherin! Their captains, and remaining players, will be waiting for you on the Quidditch pitch at four o'clock on those days. If you have any questions, feel free to ask the heads of your houses or go straight to the Quidditch team captain", Dumbledore beamed out at them for a moment before, "Now let the feast begin".

He clapped his hands and the tables filled with food enough to fill a thousand.

"Can't he just post the announcements on the bulletin board?" Pansy asked irritably as she filled her plate with mashed potatoes.

"It doesn't matter", Draco said bitterly.

He had not been asked to be team captain, instead it had been Rylie Patterson, a very built seventh year boy who could not have been good-looking if he had tried. Yet he was still Slytherin's Seeker, and the hopes of being team captain the next year were still high. Nearly every team had to be filled with new players, everyone had graduated the year before.

Draco pushed a forkful of chicken into his mouth and looked around the Slytherin table. Who would be trying out for the team? He wondered.

The next morning Draco strutted down the hall as he always did, Crabbe and Goyle on either side of him. People hurried out of their way as they made their way towards their first class, Charms.

Draco noticed suddenly a head of scarlet hair between the crowds of people and then bursting in from between two prefects appeared Ginny Weasley with Collin Creevey running behind her. Even Collin Creevey seemed to have grown taller then Ginny, it was odd how tiny she was…

"We're going to be late!" Ginny cried out as Collin tripped on her heel, their faces both red. "Professor McGonagall is going to have a fit!"

"Slow down Ginny!" Collin cried trying to catch his camera from swinging completely off his neck.

The two then disappeared down the hall together and Draco shook his head in irritation.

'Pitiful', he thought before turning into the charms classroom, he had this class with Ravenclaw.

Draco sank down into a seat in the back of class, Crabbe and Goyle seated on either side of him. He opened his charms book and leaned his head back, choosing not to pay attention this class.

He closed his eyes and began to absent-mindedly tap the tip of his eagle quill against the surface of his desk.

His thoughts wandered to Harry Potter and his friends. He had managed each year to do something to the trio that had hurt them emotionally of physically, and he planned on doing the same thing this coming year as well.

He frowned thoughtfully as no ideas came to his head. Normally he was quite good at thinking them up. He could hardly get Harry mad anymore, Harry would just brush him off… Hermione would ignore him now since he had called her a mud blood so many times the novelty had simply warn off. Then there was Weasley…

Draco's eyes snapped open and he grinned wickedly as an image of a scarlet haired figure appeared in his mind.

"Ginny Weasley, your life is mine this year", he whispered to himself and his eyes flashed coldly.

_A/N, well that was the end of my second chapter! I hope you enjoyed it! Please read and review and tell me what you think. _

I wasn't planning on having this chapter end this way, I was hoping things would start between Draco and Ginny when the Quidditch try outs started, but oh well. I guess this will work to.

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	3. Quidditch

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****I own nothing! Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling except for Rylie, Leikela, Dinah, Katherine, and basically everyone on the Quidditch teams (except of course Harry and Ron), who were my own creations! 

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Chapter 3, Quidditch

Classes past quickly to Ginny, because she had her mind on other things. She finished her homework quickly each day right when she could and hurriedly finished her work in class so she could have time to think of other things… Quidditch for instance.

Ginny fell back on her bed with a groan. She was alone in the fifth year girls dorm, for about the fourteenth time that week. The other girls were off thinking of new plans to get Collin's attention.

She had much worse things to deal with. She wanted to try out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and make it. There were a couple of downfalls to this though, first she didn't have a broom, second she was slightly afraid of heights, and third she'd never played a game of Quidditch in her life before.

As Ginny was basking in her misery the dorm door swung open with a bang and Leikela swept in looking like her regular pretty self. Ginny was suddenly struck with an idea.

"Leikela!" Ginny said sitting up with glittering eyes. "I was wondering if I could borrow your broomstick".

Leikela stared at Ginny for a moment and then shrugged without care. Leikela was probably richer then Harry was and received anything she wanted. She had received a top of the line racing broomstick the year before, and hadn't even flown it.

"You can use it whenever you like", Leikela told her cheerfully. "It's not like I do. The reason I came up here, I was wondering if you knew where Collin went?"

"Oh Collin", Ginny was thoughtful for a moment. "I think he was held back in Potions for spilling something".

"Oh", Leikela's expression went downcast and then she shrugged lightly and glided out of the room.

Ginny felt like doing cartwheels around the entire room, yet that to was also a problem, since she didn't know how to do those either.

"Yes!" Ginny finally settled on crying out, and then jumped about the room excitedly. "One thing taken care of!"

The next day was Saturday so Ginny snuck out of the dorm quietly by herself, trying to conceal the racing broom. She went out onto the Quidditch pitch and was glad to find that no one was there. Ginny swung her leg over the stick of the broom so she was straddling it. She breathed deeply and closed her eyes.

'It's not that bad Ginny', she told herself. 'Just don't think about it! Kick you're up off the ground and then you'll just slowly come back down. Remember, you learned this in first year. Just don't worry about it. Relax Gin, Relax'.

Ginny slowly pushed herself up of the ground and gasped when her feet left the safety of earth. She clutched onto the broomstick for dear life even though she was only a foot of so off the ground. 

"Alright… this isn't that bad", she mumbled to herself trying to sit up and suddenly she shot upwards.

Ginny controlled a scream and balanced herself. She had her eyes tightly closed and slowly she opened one eye and felt her stomach turn off, her face paled and she wanted to be back safely in her dorm room.

She was now twenty feet in the air and didn't want to risk moving in case she fell off.

'This wasn't worth it!' She heard a tiny voice scream in the back of her head. 'Harry's worth it!' She fought back. 'Worth you getting killed Ginny?' 'Yes!'

Ginny bravely took a deep breath and pointed the handle of the broomstick down and she slowly glided down to the ground. She toppled off a foot from the ground and felt her body trembling in fright. 

"I have to do it again", Ginny whispered determinedly. "I have to! I've got to make the team!"

Every night and every free chance Ginny got, until the twentieth she would go out to the pitch and practice flying. Her stomach felt queasy whenever she left the ground and her head spun. She felt as though she would vomit and die but she forced herself to move. When Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were trying out she watched, hidden in the shadows, and was shocked at how good some of the students were.

"I'm going to get booted before I can even make the team", Ginny whispered miserably to herself.

She had watched Cho Chang glide and swerve and she had looked beautiful every moment of it. Cho Chang was incredible and brilliant, and Ginny didn't amount to anything close to that.

Ginny slowly walked up to the Gryffindor tower and sank down into one of the squishy chairs by the fire. Harry was seated across from her and he looked up with a concerned expression etched upon his face.

"Hey Ginny, are you alright?" He asked her. "For the last couple of days you've looked pale and sick", Ginny's heart leapt, he'd noticed she wasn't feeling well! "Ron's been really upset", he added on and Ginny felt the urge to groan.

"Oh… I'm fine Harry, thanks for asking", she said gently. "I've just been thinking a lot about… things".

"I see"… Harry said slowly but it was evident by the expression on his face that he had absolutely no clue what she was talking about.

"So try outs are tomorrow Harry", Ginny said sitting up with a bright smile, her cheeks flushed.

"Yeah", Harry said putting aside his History of Magic homework. "I really can't wait. Ron and I have been wondering who will try out!" Harry suddenly grinned. "You should have seen the expression on Hermione's face when we asked her if she would try out".

Ginny could hear Hermione's voice inside her head, _'Play on a Quidditch team? Don't be ridiculous! I have school work to do, besides prefects should spend their time on other things then sports. Like making sure people aren't getting out of hand in the crowds!'_

"Anyone in fifth year going to try out Ginny?" Harry asked with a raised brow.

"I don't know", Ginny said flushing a brilliant red. "I doubt Collin will, he enjoys taking pictures more then anything else. And I doubt any of the fifth year girls will, they're involved in… uh… something else at the moment".

"Oh", Harry nodded and then took out his history of magic homework again. "Have to get this done", he said miserably. "I should have finished it a week ago, but I've been side-tracked".

Ron and Hermione came into the room bickering as usual. Hermione had her arms crossed and was looking furious while Ron was red in the face shouting.

"I didn't mean to do it Hermione! I can't believe you took ten points away for that!"

Ginny and Harry both gave each other a curious look and then stared at the duo before them.

"What's up?" Harry asked.

"She!" Ron said angrily pointing a finger at Hermione. "Took ten points from Gryffindor over the littlest thing!"

"He tried to punch Malfoy in the face! I couldn't not take points away! Even if he deserved it!" Hermione reasoned pointedly. "Besides teachers were sticking there's heads out the doors".

"Did you get him?" Harry asked hopefully.

"Almost, Hermione grabbed me at the last minute".

"What did Malfoy say to get you mad Ron?" Ginny asked curiously.

"Oh", Ron went even redder. "He was just saying stuff… about our family and stuff".

"Did you take away points from Slytherin Hermione?" Harry asked turning on her with accusing eyes.

"Of course I did", she answered darkly. "Twenty in fact".

"Brilliant!" Both Harry and Ginny cheered at the same time.

Ginny felt her face burn with embarrassment as Harry laughed and began to finish his homework.

Ginny woke early the next morning feeling sick and pale. She sat up in bed and felt her thin white nightgown sticking to her thin form. Slowly she got up out of bed and gathered her school robes together. She placed a towel over her shoulder and dragged her feet out of the girls dorm and through the Gryffindor tower, straight down the corridors and into the Gryffindor bathroom. She wasn't sure if she was going to be sick or not.

She placed her robes folded on the ground and removed her nightgown to take a long hot bath. She turned the taps on and watched the steaming water pour down into the large porcelain tub. She slid into the steaming water and sighed, wondering whether or not the bath made her feel better or sicker then before.

The day seemed to pass slowly to Ginny. Every time she looked outside she would see the Quidditch pitch and her stomach would give a funny jolt. Harry and Ron on the contrary were talking excitedly the entire day about the try outs. ("I wonder who's going to try out!")

When four o'clock came around Ginny watched curled up on a couch in the Gryffindor Common Room as Harry and Ron both exited, their brooms slung over their shoulders. Ginny felt her stomach turn over as it had been doing over the past two weeks.

Ginny took a deep breath and slowly stood. Hermione looked up at her curiously as did Collin who was putting new film into his camera. Hermione smiled and then returned to her potions homework.

"Are you going down Hermione?" Ginny asked and her voice noticeably squeaked.

"In a minute", Hermione said softly as she continued to write an essay.

Ginny nodded slowly and slowly walked up to the girls dorm. Leikela, Dinah, and Katherine were all giggling together and took no notice of Ginny grabbing the broomstick and exiting the dorm. 

Ginny hurried past everyone in the common room hoping not to gather any attention. She jumped out the portrait hole only to find Collin waiting for her.

"Ginny", he said looking at her with a grin. "Are you trying out?"

Ginny felt herself become red, as she did most of the time.

"Uh"… was the only thing that left her lips.

"I thought so, I kept wondering where you were going with Leikela's broomstick", Collin said knowledgably and Ginny felt herself become as red as her scarlet hair.

"You saw me?" She asked weakly as the two began to walk down the hall together.

"Well, I never followed you if that's what you mean", Collin said fiddling with his camera. "But I saw you leave the dorm about twenty times with a broomstick".

Collin grinned toothily at her and Ginny groaned. "Oh".

As they walked Collin seemed to be as cheerful as before, not noticing that Ginny had turned a sickening green.

"Have you ever even played a game of Quidditch before Gin?" He asked.

Ginny shook her head unable to say anything.

"Oh", he simply nodded.

It only took a couple of minutes to reach the Quidditch pitch and Ginny was amazed at how many people had showed up to try out for the team. Both Harry and Ron were standing in the centre of the large group of people, dressed in the scarlet and gold Quidditch robes.

"Alright!" Ron was shouting. "I need everyone to get into two lines! People who are trying out to be chasers in the right line in front of Harry, and the ones trying out to be beaters in the left line in front of me!"

The people spread out into two different lines and Collin hurried away to go into the stands so he could take pictures. Ginny quietly scuffled into line behind a very tall seventh year in the chasers line.

Draco stood leaning against a wall in the Quidditch pitch. He was completely shadowed out and Harry and Ron had not noticed his presence. He was curious to know who was going to make the team.

He was scanning the two lines when he noticed at the very end of one was a tiny figure with scarlet hair. He snorted with laughter and his eyes glittered icily.

"Ginny Weasley", he muttered. "She'll be knocked right off her broomstick".

Potter and Weasley rose into the air with six people trying out to be chasers and four trying out to be beaters. Potter and Weasley were both shouting things and the others were nodding though Draco couldn't hear what they're were saying, but he could guess. They were going to play against each other.

The balls were released and the try outs began. Draco was shocked at how good some of the players were and his eyes narrowed. This years Quidditch matches were bound to be difficult. His eyes then fell on tiny Ginny and an amused expression took over his features. He could see it now, her falling through the air and squealing like a child.

He, Crabbe, and Goyle had decided on tormenting Ginny the best they could. They had not come up with any good ideas however. The only things Crabbe and Goyle could think of were cursing her legs together or tripping her in the hall. They couldn't very well attack her physically with their bare hands, that would be unforgivable by all in the school. 

But ideas of taunting swept through his mind, he could tease her and make fun when she didn't make the team. He could imagine her running off the pitch in tears and he would be the one to greet her outside, with words of his own. 

As these thoughts were running through his mind he was looking at Ginny when suddenly her pale face turned and stared straight at him, her brown eyes widened in surprise.

Ginny felt her hands tremble as she stared up at the people she was to be competing with. They were all much taller then her and they were excellent players. 

She knew she would be sick no matter what after the try outs. She looked down at the ground not wanting to see the zooming players any more. She slowly looked up and her eyes widened in shock. Across the pitch, standing barely noticeable, was Draco Malfoy. He was looking at her with an expression of ice, and then he smirked and looked up at the players above.

'What a scum and a cheat', Ginny thought angrily. 'Coming to see who makes the team and who doesn't! He's such a chicken!'

Suddenly all around her the people who had been playing above her were landing on the ground. They were all sweating and looking nervous. 

"Okay, who's next?" Harry asked and the seventh year girl in front of her stepped forward revealing Ginny for the first time.

"All right Rebecca", Harry said not noticing Ginny until he looked up and his eyes widened. "Ginny?" He stared.

"I-I want t-to try out for the team", she stuttered in a tiny voice.

"Well… okay Ginny", Harry said and then smiled encouragingly. "You'll be with Rebecca, and Nathan", he said nodding to the third year boy behind Ginny who stepped up looking stubborn and brave.

She could hear the distant clicking of Collin in the stands, taking pictures like mad.

"And then the opposing team will be Lola, Willis, and Calvin", Harry said looking down at a list. "Then afterwards, the best two teams of the last matches will compete. Ron who's going?"

Ron looked up and was about to answer when his mouth gaped and he stared at Ginny.

"Ginny, what are you doing here?" He demanded.

Ginny felt her face become red. "Why can't I try out?" 

"I don't know, why _are_ you trying out?" Ron glared.

"I'm trying out and you can't do anything about it!" She snapped. "So shut-up about it and answer Harry".

Ron looked as though he was about to say something rude back but Harry cut him off.

"Ron who's going?" He repeated.

"Oh… uh… Lewis and Henry against Craig and Luke", Ron said quickly.

"Alright!" Harry said. "The snitch will not be involved in this try out. The bludgers will be going around and the quaffle as well. Both Ron and I will be playing keepers! Mount your brooms!"

Ginny shakily mounted her broom and with the rest rose up into the air and stopped. Her entire body was shaking uncontrollably and she knew she was as pale as marble. 

"Release the balls!" Ron shouted and from below a second year let loose the bludgers that soared through the air.

Then the small second year threw the red quaffle through the air. Ginny watched it as though in slow motion, her entire body shaking and her stomach churning.

Then it began…

_A/N I hope I didn't leave you to stranded. I think all I've done today is write, because I started this story today! Ah! Oh well, please please tell me what you think and review! Flames are of course welcome, because I want to improve my writing the best I can!_


	4. The Turn Out

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****I own nothing! Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling except the people from the Quidditch teams (But of course, not Harry or Ron)!

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Chapter 4, The Turn Out

Rebecca flew forward in a blur of black and quickly snatched the quaffle from the air. Ginny felt herself sway dangerously and she gasped clutching to the handle of the broomstick.

Everyone seemed to have gone to the other end of pitch in only a mere couple of seconds, and several people below were laughing as Ginny remained in the same place. Ginny took a deep breath and leaned forward, she shot through the air gaining speed as she went and she shrieked as she swerved, barely missing Lola Richardson of the opposing team. 

In the process of avoiding the hit Ginny did a spin in the air and gasped. 'I'm going to be sick', she thought lowering her head, which had begun to throb painfully.

She slowly looked up and across the pitch she could see Harry, Harry was looking at her as well. No one was around her now, and she could see Harry's expression… an expression of pity. Ginny moaned and felt tears prick her eyes, why did she even try? She had made an idiot out of herself!

'I have to keep trying!' Ginny thought gritting her teeth and turning so sharply she swung half way off the broom before regaining balance.

She looked at the chasers that were zooming every which way across the pitch and caught sight of the quaffle. Willis of the opposing team was in possession.

Ginny leaned forward once more and wobbled dangerously off the broomstick before clutching tightly trying to stay on. 'I can do this', she reminded herself. 'Just don't think about it!'

Ginny found herself in the midst of the action and was flying just behind the much larger players. Nathan was now in possession and a bludger shot by Luke, barely missed his head. 

Ginny sped out of the way of the other players and was on the outskirts of the speeding groups when suddenly,

"Ginny!" 

Nathan had thrown the quaffle her way and she squealed and let go of the handle to catch the large red ball, which she fumbled with before holding it tightly under her arm. Three players from the opposing team raced towards her.

Ginny gasped and did the only thing she could think of, she leaned forward and sped across the pitch with her eyes closed tightly.

"Ginny! Look this way Ginny!" She could hear Colin's distant voice shouting from the stands. "Gin this way!"

Ginny forced her eyes open and was shocked to find that she was across the pitch and now only Ron was waiting for her. Only inches behind were the other chasers, and she looked desperately around for her team mates, who seemed to have been left behind.

Luke swung his club powerfully at a bludger that so nearly missed Ginny's nose she was afraid she didn't have it any more for a minute.

Suddenly someone came crashing into Ginny from the side and she performed a flip in the air. In a desperate attempt, Ginny threw the quaffle with all her might at one of the three hoops and closed her eyes holding onto the broomstick.

Ginny didn't move for several seconds until she heard laughing.

"Ginny that was absolutely brilliant!" Ron guffawed.

Ginny opened her eyes wide to find that she was still twenty feet off the ground and lying completely flat on her broomstick. Her face was a pasty white and her entire body was trembling with fear Her vision was slightly blurry and their were now several people about her, two of them were Ron and Harry.

"Wh-what?" Ginny squeaked.

"That was amazing!" Nathan was nodding vigorously. 

"She didn't even look to see what she was doing", Rebecca snapped bitterly from behind Ginny.

"No", Lola laughed shaking her strawberry blonde hair so it flew into her storm blue eyes. "You needed to be looking to do something like that! That was incredible Ginny!"

Ginny was staring at the people around her, absolutely dumbstruck. Had she scored? Before she could stop herself, Ginny burst into tears. She was so scared and was feeling so humiliated she didn't know if she was just going to faint or if she was going to finally throw up.

"Oh Ginny!" Ron moaned and he grabbed the tip of her broomstick and began to bring her slowly down, despite the amused look on his face, great concern was shining in his brown eyes.

Ginny was brought gently to the ground and her entire body was racking with sobs. From the stands came Hermione, who had obviously shown up in the middle of Ginny's show, and Colin looked absolutely thrilled.

"Ooh! Gin! Look up! I want a picture of this!" Colin jumped excitedly lifting his camera but Harry easily shoved him out of the way.

"Not right now Colin!" 

Ginny was surrounded by several people who were now gazing at her with deep concern, Ginny couldn't help but notice Rebecca being the only one who looked amused. Ginny covered her face with her hands and wept. She wanted the earth to open up and swallow her, or to run back to the dorm and throw herself on her bed and scream, but she knew no one would let her get past them.

Two strong hands were on her shoulders, and she knew they both belonged to Ron who pulled her into a brotherly hug.

"Come on Ginny", he said gently, though his face was red with embarrassment.

He brought her into the shadows of the pitch and tried to take her hands off her face, but she pulled away shivering.

"Ginny", Ron said unable to stop himself from laughing. "Why are you crying?"

"Be-because!" She gasped through her tears. "I-I made an i-idiot out of myself!" 

Ron snorted. "You really _do_ suck at flying Gin, but that goal was pretty cool. I doubt even Angelina Johnson could have pulled that one off".

"I d-didn't even mean t-to do that though!" 

Ron draped a comforting arm around his little sister's shoulder.

"Oh Ginny, you never know. You might still make the team! You actually got a goal, some of the other people didn't even do that! But you did almost fall of your broomstick the entire time", Ron was thoughtful and then blinked. "Where'd you get a broomstick anyway?"

"Borrowed it", she sniffled.

"Oh, it's really nice, who'd you borrow it off of?"

"Ron!" Ginny moaned.

Ginny lay face down on her bed late that night, she was now beyond tears and was simply feeling miserable and sick. Hermione had a hand on Ginny's back and was gently rubbing it.

"Ginny, you didn't do that bad", Hermione coaxed. "Your flying just needs to be improved a bit! Other then that, you did excellently!"

Ginny sat up and stared at Hermione. "Hermione be realistic, you always are. No point stopping now for me".

"Well you can score, we know that", Hermione pointed out. "Besides that's what practices are for! Ron or Harry"- Hermione suddenly cut off and her face was thoughtful before she gazed down at Ginny. "Ginny… were you trying out for the team because of Harry?"

Ginny felt her face become as scarlet as her hair, her ears were burning. Hermione slowly nodded and sighed.

"Ginny"… she began.

"I can do it though! If they give me a chance! I can do it! I could learn to fly properly and I bet you Harry would be really impressed".

"But Harry likes you just the way you are Ginny".

"Harry likes Cho", Ginny said miserably and pressed her face into her pillow. "And Cho is captain of the Ravenclaw team, _and _a seeker!"

"Oh Ginny", Hermione said with a sudden frown. "Be reasonable. Harry enjoys your company whether or not you're on the Quidditch team!"

"But he'd enjoy my company _even_ more if I was on the team! It's all Ron and Harry talk about anyway! If I was on the team, I'd have a reason to talk to them about it, and it wouldn't sound like I was just trying to have conversations with him".

"But that's what you're trying to do", Hermione stated simply. "If you want to talk to him so bad, just strike something up with him".

"But he'd get bored", Ginny said feeling her face burn brighter with colour.

Hermione sighed and bit her lip irritably. "Look, I'm not very good in these areas Ginny. Maybe you should try talking to Leikela?" She suggested.

Ginny snorted into her pillow. "No".

Draco Malfoy was seated in the Slytherin Common Room with his friends and Pansy. They were all laughing quite hard.

"That little weasel?" Pansy laughed coldly. "She'd be knocked right out the air, but from the sounds of it, she'd simply fall off before anyone got the chance". 

Draco stretched out in his seat and sighed closing his eyes. With what he had seen, Gryffindor would not have as good a team as they had once had before. Crabbe and Goyle returned to their Potions homework, which they had absolutely no idea what to do they were so thick-headed. 

Pansy leaned over Draco and began to simper. Draco opened one eye and smirked lightly before closing it once again.

His thoughts were however not on Pansy, or his schoolwork, but on the Slytherin Quidditch try outs the next day. He wondered who would be trying out this year, he didn't think anyone would be very good. He on the other hand was an excellent seeker, the best, in his own personal opinion, in years. 

'Better then stupid Harry Potter and his stupid scar', Draco thought darkly. 'He only wins because he somehow managed to get his grubby little paws on a Firebolt. If father bought me one I'd beat him to the snitch for sure!'

Draco scowled, but this was noticed by no one. He pushed these thoughts out of his head and began to think of Ginny Weasley.

If they did allow that disgrace to be on their Quidditch team, it would of course be easy enough to knock her off her broomstick. But for inside school… that was still a problem.

Draco thought seriously about this for a minute or so.

'Curses might work', he thought. 'But she'd get over that sure enough, the only thing that could get her really angry would be to punch Potter in the face', Draco's eyes then sparkled. 'Then again, humiliating her in front of Potter would be nice, and rather interesting'.

Draco thought about this for a moment. These were all good ideas… but they just didn't seem good enough. Ginny was someone he didn't know in the least, besides knowing that she couldn't fly and that she still went very red whenever Potter was around. 

Draco frowned thoughtfully once again. Finally he stood up and walked towards the sixth year dorms. 

Maybe by the next day he'd have a good plan… perhaps his father might have some good advice on getting a Weasley.

'The again', Draco cringed at the thought. 'I've been getting father rather angry lately, and I don't know if he'll want me bothering him about such petty things… in his mind anyway', Draco paused half way up the dark staircase. 'Mother would be of no help though and she'd be angry with me even at the thought'.

Ginny woke the next morning feeling content and warm. She snuggled down farther into her thick scarlet blankets wondering why her eyes felt so puffy and sore.

"Hey Gin".

Ginny opened one eye rather sleepily and peered towards the doorway. Dinah was standing dressed in her long blue nightgown, a toothbrush hanging out of her mouth.

"Hm?" 

"Harry is waiting outside, he said he wanted to walk you down the Great Hall or something", Dinah grinned.

Ginny felt her face become red, as it did so many times a day, but nodded anyway.

She slowly crawled out of bed wondering why Harry would want to walk her to the Great Hall, when the previous days events came crashing back into her mind in a jumble. Ginny nearly fell over and she groaned becoming quite pale. Had she even thrown up yesterday? If she hadn't she would today, she was sure of it.

Ginny dressed quickly, stumbling, and then pulled a brush through her long hair. She placed her hair in pigtails and gathered up her school books, bag, and wand.

She bounded out of the fifth year girls dorm and down the stairs and into the Common Room. Harry was standing fully dressed in his school robes. He was looking into the Common Room fire, his eyes serious and worried at the same time.

Ginny jumped the last step making a soft thud, which to her delight, caught Harry's attention. He looked up and smiled at her, his brilliant green eyes soft.

"Come on Ginny", Harry said brightly and she nodded, her cheeks turning pink.

They left through the portrait hole and Harry was looking forward, Ginny looked up at him. She couldn't help but notice they were by themselves walking side by side down the hall.

"What was it you wanted to say to me Harry?" She asked quietly, fearing what it might be.

"Oh! Yeah"… Harry sighed. "Ginny, I wanted to say that you did really good yesterday, at the try outs I mean. But"…

"Oh"… Her fears were suddenly confirmed.

"Yeah. You just weren't what we were looking for", he said quietly and smiled weakly at her, his eyes full of sympathy. "I'm sorry", he added quickly. "It was good for a first time though, and I promise you if one of our chasers gets injured we'll substitute you in!"

"Yeah, alright", Ginny mumbled her stomach turning over, her face red with embarrassment. How many times a week could she possibly be humiliated? "So… wh-who did make the team?"

"The chasers were Lola, Nathan, and Rebecca", he informed her. "And our new beaters are Lewis and Craig".

Ginny couldn't help but notice they were all either in seventh year or fourth year. Lewis was however in Ginny's year, one of Colin's friends.

"That's great Harry!" Ginny beamed up at him and Harry smiled at her. "I noticed Seamus and Dean didn't show up", she added quickly, hoping he wouldn't say anything more about her.

Harry laughed. "Yeah, they realised they were no good before coming", he paused and then looked down at Ginny with an impressed grin. "I'm glad you're taking this so well Ginny, I knew you would. Ron wasn't so sure though", Harry told her cheerfully, all worry and concern disappearing from his face. 

"Yeah well"… Ginny forced a smile.

They entered the Great Hall together but Ginny for once didn't follow Harry and sit with him, Ron and Hermione. She'd rather not have people telling her how sorry they felt for her, all of breakfast. She made her way towards Colin who was edging his way away from Dinah who had taken a seat rather close to him.

As she was walking someone stepped almost deliberately in front of her. Ginny stumbled over their feet and nearly fell to the ground, but she caught herself just in time.

"Watch yourself Weasley", said a cold drawling voice. "You nearly fell on my feet… then again, there's nothing really wrong with that, is there?"

Ginny scowled up at Draco Malfoy and his two stupid, cackling friends.

"Slime-ball", she muttered hurrying away with a red face, she could feel his eyes on her all the way to the Gryffindor table.

She sank miserably down into a seat next to Colin. She didn't even have any more tears to cry with, she had humiliated herself for nothing.

"Hey Ginny!" Colin said brightly, neither noticing the nasty looks Dinah, Katherine, and Leikela were giving them.

Breakfast went fairly well, besides the sympathetic looks she couldn't help but notice coming from Ron, Harry, and Hermione, even from Lola who was seated near Ginny. She tried not to look towards them, but she was so used to glancing up over to Harry, that it was not possible.

"Oh cheer up Gin", Colin said suddenly near the end of breakfast. "It's not that bad that you didn't make the team! You've got a lot of other things going for you!"

Ginny stared at him thunderstruck. "Like what?"

Colin grinned in a childlike manner. "Everything!" He answered simply and Ginny felt her face burn with colour once again. "I had some of my pictures developed! Want to see them?" He said changing the subject to his photographs as he always did.

Without waiting for an answer Colin opened his bag and dumped at least twenty photographs onto to the table, some of them falling into Ginny's bowl of porridge.

Most of them were of Ginny, or Ginny and other people. The first one Ginny picked up was one of her posing in her new school robes. Colin had taken them when they had gotten back to the Common Room the first night back. The next few made Ginny smile brightly, forgetting for the moment that things weren't turning out for her.

They were all of Ginny, Harry, Ron, and Hermione. The final picture was of one with both Ginny and Colin together. He had let Hermione take the picture and the two were smiling brightly and Colin had his arm about her shoulder. Ginny hadn't noticed how close of friends the two had become over the last couple of years. There were so many things in fact, that she didn't notice, or forgot to notice.

Maybe Colin and Hermione was right. Being on the Quidditch team didn't matter _all_ that much, and she did have a lot more going for her. What, She still had to figure out. Colin's answer, she had to admit to herself, had confused her.

"They're brilliant Colin", Ginny whispered.

"Brilliant!" He said in return. "You can have some of them you want!"

Ginny lifted a picture of herself and Harry together, Ginny was blushing as usual but Harry was simply beaming, not noticing Ginny's red face in the least.

From behind her, she heard a familiar snigger that belonged to Malfoy. She turned and glared darkly at him, Colin had turned in his seat and was then doing the same. Malfoy, and his goons were standing over her looking highly amused. Malfoy sporting his trademark smirk.

"In your dreams Weasley", he hissed before turning on his heels and walking away, quickly followed by Crabbe and Goyle.

'Why is it everyone just thinks they can barge into my personal life?' She thought angrily placing the picture down. 'Why is it, that Malfoy thinks he can say who I'm allowed to like and who I'm not allowed to? Harry could like me! And I'm going to prove it! Not by being someone else, but by being myself! Let's see Malfoy saying _'in your dreams'_ when Harry and I are holding hands down the hall!'

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****A/N My fourth chapter complete. I really didn't like the way this one turned out. I was kind of working on it on and off today, and I couldn't make the scenes work. But the next chapters 'should' be better.

I just finished watching 'The Patriot' on t.v.! It's so good! I really, really like Jason Issacs! Does anyone else think he's an awesome actor?!?

Anyway… please read and review!!! I' d appreciate it! Thanks!!! 

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	5. Getting Her Chance

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****I own nothing! Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling! She is a fantastically beautiful author and I love all her work! 

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Chapter 5, Getting Her Chance

Ginny sat cross-legged leaning against a wall near the transfiguration classrooms. She had her head tipped to the side and was absent-mindedly twisting a lock of her scarlet hair with two fingers. 

'How am I going to get Harry to notice me more, by just being me', she thought and frowned slightly. 'I could try being louder, or maybe I could try to get Harry into a conversation about something I enjoy. Well… what do I enjoy? I like reading, well sometimes anyway. I enjoy Charms the most out of all my subjects, but I'm pretty sure Harry doesn't like to read and that he likes Defence Against the Dark Arts more then anything else!' Ginny groaned in frustration, trying hard not to bang her head against the wall. 'Well… I could try at least', Ginny glowered darkly at the ground beginning to pull on the lock of hair between her fingers. 'I'll show that Draco Malfoy! That scum! That vile piece of dirt! He thinks he's so tough and good-looking. He's a bloody prat, that's what he is. It's not like _his_ girlfriend is anything to brag about'.

Ginny was so angry and was so concentrated on hating Malfoy, that she did not notice when Cho Chang and several seventh year Ravenclaws came walking into the corridor. Her Head Girl badge glimmered brightly from her chest.

Ginny suddenly noticed the pretty asian girl who looked down at Ginny and smiled, showing off a set of perfect white teeth.

"Good morning Ginny", she said cheerfully and a couple of the other Ravenclaw nodded smiling as well.

Ginny forced a bright smile as the Ravenclaws disappeared around a corner. Ginny's smile turned into one of the deepest dislike and she sighed shaking her head lightly. Suddenly from around the corner came Colin, with slightly red cheeks looking wildly around.

"Ginny!" He cried exasperated. "I've been looking everywhere for you! Divination starts in five minutes and you still have my Chinese horoscopes essay!"

Ginny's brown eyes widened and she leapt quickly to her feet swinging her bag over her shoulder. She grabbed Colin by the arm and the two began to run towards their divination classroom that was across the school. It would take them at least ten minutes to reach it!

"I'm sorry!" Ginny cried as they ran, pushing past students. "I was lost in my thoughts!"

"D-don't worry about it Gin!" Colin gasped through breaths, as he had already been running around looking for her. 

Fourteen minutes later, and nine minutes late for class, Ginny and Colin climbed the Divination staircase. Their cheeks were red and they were completely out of breath. They swung the door open with a clang attracting the attention of the entire class. The room was sweltering hot and the smells of strong incense met them making their stomachs churn., she moaned.

Professor Trelawney turned sharply from where she had stood leaning over a table consisting of Dinah, Katherine, and Leikela. Professor Trelawney's eyes narrowed in irritation, but surprise also shone there.

Neither Ginny or Colin noticed the dark glares coming from their three classmates. Dinah's eyes were wide and tearful and the other two girls laid their hands gently on her back.

"Mr. Creevey! Miss Weasley!" Professor Trelawney said. "The two of you have never been late to my class before! I ask that it does not happen again!" She pointed to the only free table in the classroom with a long thin finger. "Sit down and open your texts to pages 489 and 490".

"Yes Professor", they both said obediently and hurried to the table sinking down into their seats and began to rummage through their bags. 

Ginny and Colin's cheeks were crimson as they flipped through their texts and set them up in front of them. Colin sighed softly and leaned back in his seat, Ginny set his essay beside him and closed her eyes for a moment.

"Hey Ginny", she heard Colin whisper in her ear and she opened her eyes ever so slightly. "I've been meaning to ask you, but you've seemed a bit upset lately. But I was just wondering, why does Dinah, Katherine, and Leikela keep following me around?"

Ginny had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. She was silent for a moment, trying to calm her amusement.

"Uh"… she said softly when she finally could, she glanced towards the three girls and her eyes widened in surprise.

They were both looking over at Ginny with eyes as cold as ice, Dinah's eyes were watering as though she were close to tears. Ginny frowned lightly, but before she could ask what was wrong, they looked away.

"Uh", she repeated shaking her head and turned to Colin once more. "Maybe you should ask Dinah what's up?" She whispered in suggestion.

Colin frowned lightly. "Dinah… she kind of scares me Gin. You don't think… well you don't think she's a bit mad do you?" Colin looked deadly serious and Ginny turned her head quickly so he could not see her almost laugh once again.

"No Colin".

Colin looked thoughtful, shook his head, and then began to read from the text. His eyes scanned the pages and he looked thoughtful and content. Ginny grinned and shook her head, before continuing on herself.

Half way through class, Ginny was beginning to tire of all the facial expressions she had been receiving that day. First from Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Lola, ones of the deepest sympathy, and now from Dinah, Katherine, and Leikela looks of annoyance and anger.

She could not understand _why_ her friends were looking at her in such a way. She would have ask them after class. Yet at the moment she had more important things to deal with, like getting Harry's attention.

She sat tapping her quill against the desk, not bothering to pay attention to Professor Trelawney that class, she would catch up later that night. Her eyes widened when she was suddenly hit with an idea that was so obviously plain that she felt like mentally kicking herself.

The bell rang and without a word to Colin, or Katherine, or Dinah, or Leikela, or even an apology to Professor Trelawney, Ginny rushed from the room. Ginny's face broke out into a wide smile, and she nearly had a skip to her run. Every bad thought about missing out on being a chaser for the Quidditch team was wiped from her mind. 

She ran hurriedly into the Great Hall where everyone was sitting themselves down for lunch. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were just doing so. Ginny grinned and hurried over flopping down into a seat next to them, next to Harry in particular.

Harry smiled at her and she felt her cheeks burn with colour. Hermione and Ron were in yet another argument, so Ginny was free to ask Harry what she wanted without worry.

"Harry", Ginny said quietly. "I was wondering… would you be able to help me with Defence Against the Dark Arts?" Ginny felt her cheeks flush crimson at the question, but somehow this didn't feel like herself.

Ginny did quite well in all her subjects, and did not really need any help. Hadn't she _promised _herself that she would be herself to get Harry, and spite Draco Malfoy? Yet… this might work, and it was worth a try, wasn't it?

Harry blinked and seemed to stare down at her with shock. "You need help?" He asked blankly. "But Ginny, I always thought you were quite brilliant in school".

Ginny beamed at this compliment, all promises and decency wiped from her mind.

"Th-thanks Harry! But… I've just been having problems with some of the more dangerous parts of the class"…

He frowned slightly at her and seemed to be studying her face with great thought. If possible, Ginny felt her cheeks become redder. 

'He knows I'm lying', the thought came upon her like a sentence of doom. 'Why am I always so stupid? Why can't I ever think of any good plans… Why can't I just go after Colin like Dinah, it would be easier to get him to be around me then Harry'.

Harry hesitated for a moment and then glanced back at Hermione, who was now red in the face from yelling at Ron.

"Hermione's much better at tutoring people then me Ginny", Harry informed her of something she already knew to well, and she noticed he looked rather uncomfortable. He shifted in his seat and he cheeks seemed to have tinged with colour.

"Oh… I know", she said quickly in a quiet voice.

She was now staring down at the floor with a great amount of interest, or so it appeared to everyone else who happened to glance her way.

Why wasn't it good enough? Why was it that she couldn't make the Quidditch team, and even her efforts didn't seem to please Harry! He didn't want to tutor her, that was obvious and it hurt. He didn't want to like Ginny, but Ginny wanted him to. Ginny wanted him to love her with her whole heart, and yet that didn't seem to be working. Being herself wasn't good enough for Harry Potter. Maybe she needed to be pretty, with oval eyes, and be very intelligent. She didn't have any of those things…

She felt her eyes begin to itch with tears that seemed to have finally decided to come back up again. She looked up and past Harry, not wanting to see his awkward green eyes looking down at her. Yet the sight that met her was even more unsettling. 

Draco Malfoy was staring over at her with his steel eyes, and he was laughing at her. Not with his lips or with any expression but with those cold grey eyes of his… She pierced her lips, lifted her head, and flashed her brown eyes at Harry.

"Please Harry, I really do need the help", she said once again, more firmly and with confidence.

Harry was still looking down at her, Hermione and Ron had finally stopped fighting, but didn't seem to be talking to each other anymore either.

"Well, I guess so Ginny", Harry told her slowly as though trying to make up his mind, every second seemed to slice a hole in her heart. "Yeah sure, why not? When do you want to do it?"

Ginny felt a surge of excitement flow through her body and her eyes widened in surprise and delight.

"How about in a couple of days", she suggested trying to keep herself from leaping into the air with joy. "Seven o'clock in one of the Transfiguration classrooms?"

Harry nodded and seemed quite thoughtful. Ginny wasn't sure if she could eat, she wasn't sure if she could do anything but stare up at Harry in complete amazement. 

Ginny slowly rose to her feet after a blissful minute, her hands were shaking and her eyes were full of happiness and cheer. This was the best she had felt in days! She walked with her head held up and nearly skipped out of the Great Hall, forgetting to eat lunch, when…

"Ginny!" Someone snapped sharply from behind her.

Ginny yelped in surprise and whirled around to find Katherine, Dinah, and Leikela approaching her like hungry hyena's. Leikela stomped forward and stuck a finger right up to Ginny's nose, her teeth barred.

"What _exactly_ do you think you're doing Ginny Weasley?" She demanded and Ginny simple stared back, dumbstruck.

"Wh-what?"

"Don't what us!" Katherine said shrilly, she was twirling her wand between her chubby fingers. "You now exactly what we're talking about!"

"How could you Ginny?" Dinah said as tears filled her eyes, her blonde hair falling in front of her watering eyes.

"How could I what?" She asked looking at them in an exasperated manner. "What did I do?"

"You've been _flirting _with Colin for the last couple of weeks, and frankly, we're sick of it!" Leikela informed her viciously and Ginny felt her eyes grow so wide she feared they would fall out.

"_flirting_?" She repeated flatly. "With _Colin_? Colin Creevey?"

"What other Colin is there?" Katherine snapped. "You know we're trying to set Dinah and Colin up together, and then you go and steal him away whenever we try to get him. I mean, you sitting down beside him and stealing him away from Dinah, and always walking to class together! Plus you two coming into class late together with red cheeks as though you were both kissing somewhere in secret was a bit harsh!"

Ginny stared in disbelief at the three girls in front of her. Two looking furious and the other on the edge of tears.

"I don't flirt with Colin", she then said in the sudden silence with quite a high voice. "I don't _like_ Colin like that in anyway! Colin is a friend! I would never try to steal him away from Dinah! Never! You three know who I like!"

Leikela, Dinah, and Katherine stared seriously and long at Ginny.

"Why'd you both come to class late with red cheeks?" Dinah finally demanded with a shaking voice.

"Because I was late, and I had his homework, so he came looking for me to get it", she answered simply. "And all the others times were just accidents, I mean come on. You could even ask Colin, Colin would say the exact same thing. We _don't_ like each other like that".

Another moment of piercing stares went by before the girls seemed convinced. They nodded, muttered their apologies and then hurried off together. Ginny stared after them in a disbelieving manner, shaking her head of scarlet hair.

What class did she have next? Potions! It wouldn't be that horrible today, because she had happier things to look forward to. She was now getting closer to wiping that horrible smugness off of Malfoy's face.

****_ A/N That's the end of the fifth chapter. In case anyone is wondering, Draco and Ginny stuff will be happening in the next chapter. They'll actually have conversations! Sorry this chapter is so short, it's just got one or two little things in it. Please Read and Review! And thank you to all those people that have reviewed so far! _


	6. Big Trouble

**__**

****I own nothing! Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling! The most spectacular author in the entire world!

Chapter 6, Big Trouble

The next morning Ginny woke with a bright smile. She had not felt so wonderful in her entire life, she didn't think so anyway.

She had even put her black school hat on, even though it made her scarlet hair even more vivid. She was seated beside Lola during breakfast in the Great Hall. Lola was talking cheerfully, and Ginny was shocked to find that Lola could look beautiful no matter what she did. While she talked, Ginny counted her flip her hair six times, smile showing every white tooth 18 complete times, and cross and uncross her legs eight times.

"So Ginny!" Lola had said when she had sunken down into a seat beside the redhead. "I was thinking, since you didn't make the Quidditch and all, that maybe next year you would want to try out. So I was going to ask if you wanted some flying lessons?" Lola said tipping her head delicately to the side.

Ginny stared up at her and her eyes sparkled with excitement. Things were finally going right.

"Brilliant Lola!" Ginny cried. "I'd love to have flying lessons!"

"Wonderful!" Lola exclaimed in return. "When do all your classes end?"

"At least by four", Ginny answered.

"Well… since it's Friday now", Lola thought for a moment. "How about we start lessons Wednesday about seven o'clock?"

Ginny nodded happily. "Curious Lola, but do you know who made the Slytherin team yesterday?" 

Lola shook her head and her blonde ponytail slapped against her cheek. "Not an idea Gin, maybe you should ask Ron or Harry. They might have gotten some people to check it out", she winked. "Like you know, spies".

Ginny turned slowly away from Lola and was lost in thoughts. She had forgotten to tell someone about Malfoy watching the try outs. He knew who had made the team and who had not. She had been so upset that she had not remembered until then. Oh! How she would love for Harry or Ron to punch his pale face in!

As usual Colin sank down into the seat opposite the side of where Lola was sitting. Ginny blinked in surprise and looked up at him. He seemed very sleepy, and his eyelids seemed to be weighing down.

"What's wrong Colin?" She asked genuinely concerned for her friend.

He looked at her with a slight frown and shook his head gently. He placed several textbooks down on the table and turned to face her.

"Leikela wouldn't let me back into the boys dorm last night", he answered in a quiet voice. "She said that I was being stupid and I didn't realize something that was completely obvious! Did you know that Dinah likes me?"

Ginny felt heat rise up in her cheeks but she quickly shook her head no. Colin obviously wasn't paying attention so he nodded and looked down at his hands.

"She said I wasn't allowed back into the dorm unless I asked her out on a date, so I slept on the couch the entire night".

Ginny placed a hand on his shoulder, she felt sorry for both Colin and Dinah. Colin didn't like her, and wasn't going to date someone he didn't like.

"Oh, I'm sorry Colin", Ginny said gently.

Colin nodded once more before placing his head on his stack of schoolbooks and closing his eyes.

Ginny sighed softly and sank down in her seat as well. Down the long Gryffindor table she could see Harry laughing with Ron and Hermione. He was waving his hands about as he talked and both Hermione and Ron were laughing and nodding. Ginny sighed with a delicate smile on her lips as she simply gazed over at Harry. No one was better then he.

Draco had gone to breakfast much earlier then most of the other Slytherins. He had been quite miserable since the day before, Quidditch try outs had not gone exactly as he had wanted them to.

There was perhaps no skill in Slytherin left, only bulk and muscle. Rylie however had managed to pick out the people to be on the team. Each one larger and more stupid then the last.

The minutes crawled by and soon the Great Hall began to fill. First pretty Cho Chang and the Ravenclaws emerged, Draco enjoyed watching her. She may have been tiny but she was brilliant on the Quidditch pitch and easy on the eyes. Some Gryffindors then came, followed by some first year Hufflepuffs. When the Great Hall was nearly full Potter, Weasley, and Granger came in laughing and looking perfect together as usual. 

They sank down into their seats, Potter and Weasley beginning to talk at once while Hermione propped a thick textbook up and began to read.

He gritted his teeth. 'Damn all three of them', he thought bitterly as a few Slytherins sat down at the table. 'Damn all of them… They shouldn't have the better Quidditch team and they shouldn't always look so happy. Why is it those three are so famous, they're all bloody idiots!' Draco's eyes narrowed even more so when Ginny Weasley walked in, sinking down into a seat by herself, and began to gaze at Potter like usual. 'I'll get her today', Draco thought. 'Today will be perfect. I'll get her, Potter, Granger, and Weasley all together. I won't have it, they can't be _that_ happy'.

He wondered as he slowly ate a piece of bacon, if Ginny had told Potter about his spying. Yet he doubted it, Potter and Weasley would have confronted him if they knew. Maybe her _problems_ in life were to big for her to be bothered with anything else. He thought about this for a moment, and then shrugged without care.

Draco's time came in between classes that afternoon. On either side of him was Crabbe and Goyle. The younger students hurried out of their way, and when a group of tiny first years fled, standing before them was Ginny and Colin Creevey. They were both talking with smiles on their faces, though Colin, Draco noted, looked rather tired and worn. 

Then from around the corner came Potter, Weasley, and Granger. The trio never seemed to be apart, Draco could not fathom this in the least. Even he himself was seen without Crabbe and Goyle sometimes, these three seemed to be attached annoyingly at the hip.

They were in the Transfiguration corridor, and the fifth years had obviously just come from class, and the sixth years were just coming.

Draco smirked coldly, his eyes glazed over icily. Now was his time to shine, he would hurt them all by hurting Ginny.

As he drew nearer he watched as Ginny looked up and her face became red with delight at the sight of Harry. Hermione lifted her hand and waved to Ginny, hurrying forward with an armful of books.

Draco stopped and watched, Crabbe and Goyle were standing on either side of him, giving him the oddest array of looks.

"Malfoy", Crabbe began. "What"-

"Shut-up", he snapped and from within his pocket he brought out his wand.

He pointed it across the hall at Ginny and waited, no one seemed to notice what he was doing.

He watched as Ginny kept stealing glances at Harry who was talking to Ron quite contently. Then Potter and Weasley both turned and were looking at Ginny, Granger, and Colin.

His time was perfect and cruel. He whispered words under his breath and black sparks shot out from the tip of his wand. His spell shot across the hall swiftly, and on target. It hit the tiny scarlet haired figure not far from himself, and the impact slammed her hard into the wall. 

Everything happened in quite a blur. Granger squealed and Colin yelped leaping backwards. People whirled around wondering what had made the sudden noise and soon laughter was breaking out all through the corridor.

Ginny was leaning back against the stone wall her brown eyes large with fright. She had her hand on her chest and she was deathly pale. Her skin had begun to twist and scale, and her eyes had begun to brighten into a glowing amber. Laughter was exploding from all corners of the corridor Ginny lifted a hand to her scarlet hair that had begun to fall out in tufts.

Ginny shrieked in an unnatural, wheezy, tone and her eyes wandered through the crowds of laughing people. Her eyes filled with tears and rested on Harry who had taken a step back, his eyes wide with horror. Ginny whipped her head to the centre of the crowd, where he himself stood. Draco still had his wand slightly raised and he was laughing along with Crabbe and Goyle.

Ginny ran.

She disappeared around a corner and Granger hurried after her shouting.

Draco laughed heartily until his chest hurt. He had seen the look Potter had given Ginny, it had been one of complete disgust and horror. He had succeeded in not only humiliating Ginny in front of Potter, but in front of a hundred other people as well. He could only smile happily at the taunting she would receive next time she was seen in the halls.

Potter would now always think of Ginny as disgusting and ugly whenever he saw her. Ron was looking furious, so Draco casually turned and disappeared into the crowds. Ginny would tell Ron, and then Draco could have the delight of getting Weasley caught by one of the teachers in one of his idiotic attempts to _beat_ him up.

Ginny ran into the girls washroom, her sickness had finally caught up with her. She fell over one of the toilets and her entire body seemed to wretch. Ginny could not think, she was to panicked and humiliated to think of anything but the pain in her chest and the sickness in her stomach.

Only a moment after Ginny had entered the washroom the door clanged open again and Hermione had appeared.

Ginny was sick for perhaps five entire minutes, her stomach was completely empty after she was finished. Hermione sat rubbing Ginny's back gently and muttered comforting words to her.

Ginny burst into tears when she had wiped her mouth on her overly large school robes. Her body shook with tears and Hermione hugged her despite her appearance.

"Oh Ginny", Hermione whispered gently. "We should get you to Madam Pomfrey, I can't fix this".

"D-did you see his face?" Ginny gasped between tears, she was slightly hysterical.

Hermione pursed her lips together and removed her school cloak from around her shoulders. She draped it around Ginny's shoulders and pulled the hood up to save her from a second humiliation.

Ginny could not think clearly, she did not notice when Hermione lifted her to her feet and began to lead her out of the washroom. The only thing in her head was the look of complete disgust on Harry's face. She did not even know what she looked like, but she could feel her skin crack and creak as though it was old and rusted. She could feel her eyes burn and her body seemed even tinier then usual. She had reached up and to her complete horror she had been able to take locks of her fire red hair out. 

It was then that she had looked up and between the laughing people she had seen Harry and Ron standing beside each other. Harry's brilliant green eyes were wide and his face was twisted into one of horror and disgust. Why had she been humiliated in front of Harry? Why had someone done this to her? Why?

Ron had looked furious and Hermione was as well. Harry had been disgusted… he did not care for Ginny, he did not care that she had been cursed. Why did he not care? He had cared about her in second year, he had taken care of her then. 

'He still cares about me', Ginny convinced herself, feeling slightly insane. 'Harry cares about me very much, I would have been disgusted seeing myself after being cursed!' She thought wildly. 'Malfoy! Malfoy!'

It had been Malfoy who had cursed her. She had seen him last of all and she felt a surge of rage spread through her entire body.

She wasn't stupid, she knew what he was doing. He had gotten bored of taunting Harry, Ron, and Hermione, so he had gone after her because she was the next best thing. He had wanted to hurt her because then it would infuriate Ron, and then get Hermione and Harry angry as well. She had been his toy, and now, for his own cruel amusement, he had humiliated her right in front of Harry… right in front of about another fifty people as well.

'I hate him!' She thought darkly as Hermione led her through the doors of the hospital wing. 'Draco will be the one to pay next! I don't care, I won't be the victim! Draco won't humiliate me any more… I want Draco to be hurt, I want him to cry like he made me. I want him to be ashamed to show his face!'

"Madam Pomfrey!" Hermione shouted so suddenly that it brought Ginny back from her thoughts, and she was shocked to find herself already in the hospital wing. "Madam Pomfrey!"

Her body was wracking with hysterical sobs and she was completely covered in Hermione's school cloak. 

Madam Pomfrey hurried into the room from her office looking quite irritated. At the sight of Hermione she frowned deeply and placed her hands on her hips.

"What is it now Miss Granger?" She asked darkly. "It better not be Harry Potter under that cloak!"

"It's not Madam Pomfrey!" Hermione assured her quickly. "It's Ginny Weasley Madam, somebody cursed her in the halls". As Hermione finished her sentence the school bell rang.

Madam Pomfrey frowned and walked briskly forward. Ginny backed away not wanting to be seen and be humiliated once again.

"Come here child, or I won't be able to put you right!"

Slowly Ginny walked forward and Madam Pomfrey removed the hood of the cloak and stared down at Ginny, her frown deepening into a scowl. Ginny sobbed even harder and covered her face with scaling hands. 

"Well", Madam Pomfrey tutted. "Well".

"How long will it take to put her right?" Hermione asked quietly, placing two comforting arms around Ginny's shoulders.

"Not long, a day or two maybe", Madam Pomfrey informed her bringing Ginny towards a bed. "It's an advanced aging spell, this is what Ginny would look like in about two hundreds years or so I suppose. Her skin is withered and cracked, her eyes faded, her teeth have yellowed, and her hair has fallen out".

Ginny let out a mortified scream and tried to cover herself once more.

"Gracious child!" Madam Pomfrey snapped quite alarmed. "You'll frighten the students to death! Miss Granger, you can return to class".

"I thought… well Madam, I thought I might be able to stay with Ginny", Hermione said quite quietly, not wanting to anger the matron of the school.

Madam Pomfrey tutted once again and shook her head. "No Miss Granger, please return to class".

Hermione nodded and sighed deeply. "Bye Ginny… I'll visit you".

Ginny watched as Hermione left her by her lone self. Her fearful eyes widened as Madam Pomfrey seemed to tower over her a moment later. In her hand she held a glass full of a transparent blue liquid. She lifted to class towards Ginny.

"This will take a while my dear, so I'd get changed into some pyjamas and take it while you're lying in one of the beds".

Slowly Ginny took the glass and scuffled behind curtains Madam Pomfrey began to set up. She slowly changed through tears and laid back in one of the hospital beds. She didn't want to show her face but slowly brought the glass to her lips. She shuttered as the first dropped touched her tongue, it tasted bitter, like coffee.

"You'll need to drink the entire thing Miss Weasley", Madam Pomfrey informed her, watching her closely with narrowed eyes.

Ginny whimpered before tipping the glass up and began to swallow in big gulps. She held her eyes shut tightly until the last of it was gone. Nearly immediately, a slow writhing feeling spread through her entire body. Ginny felt more tears slide down her cheeks and she pulled the white hospital blanket up over her head.

'Damn that Draco Malfoy', she thought, a fresh wave of tears and rage washing over her. 'I've lost my chance to be with Harry tomorrow night! I won't be able to be with him anymore… Malfoy's ruined the only good day I've had in weeks! I won't be able to show my face in _weeks_!'

The day past slowly for Ginny, the only thing that comforted her were her tears and the thoughts of revenge on a certain grey eyed boy. Ginny squirmed restlessly during the night as she slept, her body feeling odd and uncomfortable.

When she woke the next morning Ginny lay quite still and silent. The sun was peeking in through the curtains and she knew that it was Saturday morning. A small miserable sigh left her lips and Ginny slowly sat up. Her mind was a blur of horrible things and nightmares she had had during the night.

She didn't dare to look down at her hands just yet, when she has mustered the courage to steal a glance, Madam Pomfrey appeared at her bedside.

"Well", Madam Pomfrey said taking Ginny sharply by the cheek and turning her head from side to side. "Open your mouth, yes wonderful your teeth are back to normal. Your hair has grown back beautifully, and your eyes are brown again Miss Weasley", Madam Pomfrey lifted Ginny's hands and turned them over. "Everything seems in order, but I must say you should stay for a little while. I'd like to keep you here for a little while longer, just to make sure everything stays as it is".

Madam Pomfrey took out from her pocket a hand mirror. She handed it to Ginny, who hesitated before taking it. She closed her eyes tightly and lifted the mirror. Slowly she opened her eyes…

Her scarlet hair was glimmering in waves to the middle of her back, her brown eyes were shining, and her freckles and fair complexion were as they had always been. 

Ginny sighed in relief, she'd rather just be plain old Ginny, then be a Ginny who she never wished to become. She lifted a small hand and touched her soft cheek, her eyes filled with tears at the memories of the day before washed over her with a sting. She lowered the mirror and closed her eyes, breathing deeply.

"Miss Granger, Mr. Potter, and your brother were all here earlier Ginny", Madam Pomfrey told her gently placing a hand on Ginny's shoulder. "I didn't want to wake you, so they said they'd come back later".

Ginny slowly nodded, unable to speak.

Madam Pomfrey whirled around on her heels and hurried about every which way, carrying on with whatever the school matron did. Ginny was silent and still for several minutes before heaving a great sigh. She swung her legs out from under the thin white blankets and set them down on the cold linoleum floor.

Ginny shivered but stood straight up anyway. She didn't know exactly how she felt. She knew she was angry, and humiliated… yet it didn't feel as it had before, it felt as though her mind had become numb.

Madam Pomfrey turned around just as Ginny was taking her folded school robes up into her arms.

"Miss Weasley!" Madam Pomfrey nearly snarled hurrying over, each footstep making Ginny tremble. "I do not remember telling you, you could get up out of bed! Did I not _just_ say specifically that I wanted you to stay for a little bit?"

"Please Madam", Ginny said flushing. "I feel fine, can't I please go?"

Madam Pomfrey seemed absolutely furious with her. "Fine! But if your lovely hair falls out while your walking down the hall, don't think it's my fault!"

Ginny stretched stiffly when the matron had turned away. She pulled the curtains around her bed and quickly dressed. She ran her fingers through her abnormally soft hair and paused twisting a strand through her fingers.

Ginny shook her head before hurrying out of the hospital wing, swinging her bag over her shoulder as she went. She hoped nobody would see her, though she knew her scarlet hair was quite vivid and distinguishable.

Draco stood with Crabbe and Goyle in one of the schools many corridors. They were having an animated conversation and laughing heartily about the occurrences of the day before. 

He had adored the look on Ginny Weasley's face, she had become hideously ugly. He had been waiting to use that curse on someone for quite a while, and was mildly surprised that he had not thought of it before. Potter wouldn't be to thrilled to see her again, Draco snickered at this thought.

Suddenly from around the corner, to his surprise, came Ginny Weasley. She looked perfectly normal, or as normal as a Weasley could get. Her scarlet hair was flowing behind her and her fair cheeks were tinged pink.

Immediately sniggers and laughter broke out all around her and Ginny's face became completely red.

"Hey Weasley!" Draco shouted with a sneer and she looked up at him, her eyes widening. "After the way Potter saw you yesterday, he'll _never_ want to be with you! Hell, no one would after seeing what you're going to look like!"

Laughter broke out loudly through the corridor, even people from Gryffindor were covering their mouths to keep from laughing. However what happened next was unsuspected by everyone, and it completely stunned Malfoy.

"Malfoy! You snake!" Ginny shrieked and in less then a few seconds Ginny had dived across the hall and leapt onto Draco.

Draco's grey eyes widened in shock and he fell backwards as Ginny's tiny body slammed hard into him. She began to hit him as hard as she could, her hand struck him round the face at least four times before people began to try to get her off of him. But it was as though Ginny was a lot stronger then she appeared, because she wriggled out and kicked Draco hard in the gut.

Two Ravenclaws grabbed onto Ginny, but suddenly grinned wickedly and let Ginny go to attack Draco as she pleased. Her fist hit his cheek for the fifth time when Draco recovered from the shock of Ginny acting so uncharacteristically. 

"Get off of me Weasley!" He snarled and kicked with all his might, his foot smashed into her side and she toppled off. "You bloody"-

"Mr. Malfoy! Miss Weasley!" A shriek that echoed through out the corridor rang out like a sentence of doom.

People hurried away, including Crabbe and Goyle, who had stood helplessly near Draco only moments before. 

Professor McGonagall had come out from a classroom and her lips were in a thin line. Her face was red with fury and strands of her fading black hair had come out from it's regular tight bun. She was looking down at Draco and Ginny who were both sprawled on the ground looking angry and hurt.

"I've never-!" She began shrieking. "I never ever would have thought! Mr. Malfoy! Attacking a female student younger then yourself and so much tinier! That's the most low thing I think you've ever done!"

"I never attacked her-!" Draco began furiously leaping as quickly as he could to his feet, slicking back strands of loose blonde hair that had fallen across his cheeks.

"And you Ginny!" Professor McGonagall roared ignoring him. "I never would have thought it! You've always been such a good student! Never have I seen you act in such a way! Someone from my own house behaving in such a way!"

Draco was furious, he was trying to work out something to say but he could not. Anyway he put it, he would end up getting in trouble worse then he already was.

"I cannot believe this!" Professor McGonagall shrieked one last time. "You will both receive detentions, and thirty points will be taken from both your houses! Your parents will be receiving letters home as well!" Professor McGonagall appeared as though she wanted to hit both teenagers across the heads with the back of her hand.

Slowly Professor McGonagall turned, her body shaking with so much rage. Before she made it around the corner she looked back at Draco and Ginny who were still completely motionless. Draco was standing with his hands clenched tightly by his sides, and Ginny was still seated on the floor with a very pale face.

"Both go your separate ways now!" She snapped.

Ginny sprang up from the floor and gave Draco a look of pure venom, which Draco returned hatefully.

"Filthy little rat", he spat before striding away with flashing eyes.

Behind him he could hear Ginny mutter an equally insulting thing back, but he did not turn knowing Professor McGonagall was still watching with severe eyes.

Draco hurried back to the Slytherin Common Room where both Crabbe and Goyle were waiting for him. Malfoy was feeling more sour and angry then he had ever been in months. He could feel his cheek begin to swell from being hit in the same place five times, and his stomach was aching from being kicked by her tiny heeled foot.

**** _A/N Uh… well, I guess they didn't really have a conversation did they? ~blush~ Um, well in the next one it's their detention so they'll 'have' to talk in that one. I'm sorry! I hope you enjoyed the chapter anyway! Please Read and Review, and thank-you to all the people that have! _^-^


	7. Detention

****

****I own nothing! Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling! She is a spectacular author and I absolutely love all of her books! _(I can't wait until the fifth book comes out!)_

Chapter 7, Detention

Ginny sat in the middle of a large crowd of arguing people. Ginny's eyes were wide and her skin was pale, around her stood the sixth year boys and girls, the fifth year girls, Lola, and Colin.

"It was bloody brilliant!" Dean Thomas was shouting over the voices of the others. "Came just around the corner when is happened, didn't we Seamus?" He was saying excitedly. "Knocked Malfoy to the crowd and started hitting him! He didn't even know what to do!"

"Ginny, you really shouldn't have! You've got a detention now and points were taken off of Gryffindor! Imagine what your mother will say when she finds out", Hermione was squealing. "He could have cursed you! You could have wound up right back in the hospital wing, and Madam Pomfrey would have been furious!"

"He didn't hit you back did he Ginny?" Ron was asking though his eyes were sparkling with amusement. "Cause if he did, I'm going to clock him one!"

"I wish I would have been there!" Colin squeaked in a disappointed tone. "I could have gotten a photograph!"

Ginny had returned to Gryffindor tower to find that Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan had already told the entire house. Ginny was still in shock and was only mildly aware of the aching pain in her side where Malfoy had kicked her with all his might, she was beginning to suspect a bruise would be appearing there soon. 

'I can't believe I did that', she was thinking in a devastated way. 'I jumped on Malfoy, he'll send me to the hospital wing in pieces next!' But a tiny voice in the back of Ginny's mind began to debate. 'But he deserved it didn't he, Ginny? You hit him round the face a few times, and he'll probably have a big bruise on his pale face next time you see him! Sure, you didn't make him cry, but you damaged his pride. People will be talking about this for weeks! You, Ginny Weasley, beat up Draco Malfoy!' Ginny hesitated. 'But… he was just shocked, he kicked me afterwards. If Professor McGonagall had not have come, who knows what could have happened to me!'

Ginny slowly looked up from her clasped hands on her lap to the people jabbering about what had happened around her. Her eyes rested on Harry who had not said anything yet, he was looking down at Ginny with a thoughtful expression on his face.

He then leaned down and whispered in her ear, "I guess you won't be needing any help with Defence Against the Dark Arts, it sounds like you can take care of yourself just fine".

Ginny felt crest-fallen but she nodded and managed a weak smile.

"Excuse me", she whispered and slowly stood.

'What's happened to me?' She wondered as she pushed through the throng of people. 'I don't do this, that's the first time I've ever seriously hit someone! I… never should have done that! I was so angry though… Oh, I hate him so much! He deserved it! He did, but I shouldn't have done it', Ginny groaned miserably as she climbed the stairs to the girls dormitory. 'Mum is going to kill me! She'll send me a howler for sure!'

Ginny shuffled towards her bed and just as she collapsed the door swung open and Dinah, Katherine, and Leikela came in laughing with sparkling eyes.

"Gin!" Katherine squealed excitedly. "I can't believe you did that! You've sure been acting differently this year. First Quidditch try outs, and now fighting older 'male' students in the corridors!"

Ginny moaned and turned over so she was laying on her stomach, and pressed her face into her pillow. Maybe if she suffocated herself, she would forget everything that had happened?

The three girls sank down onto Ginny's bed, all giggling together. She felt someone begin to touch her hair and then she heard Leikela speak.

"Ginny, your hair is so pretty now! It's so soft and smooth! Maybe it wasn't so bad that you were cursed!"

Ginny groaned once more into her pillow wishing she were alone and away from her dim-witted roommates. 

The days past slowly and horribly for Ginny. The very next day during Sunday breakfast a howler did indeed arrive for her. Ginny had been humiliated once again, and had been laughed out of the Great Hall. Mrs. Weasley's voice rang through the hall ("How _dare_ you start a fight in the corridors Ginny Weasley! I never would have thought _you_ would do such a thing! Maybe Ron [Ron had sunk far down in his seat at the mention of his name], but never you!").

Although most of the students cheered when Ginny walked by ("Great job getting Malfoy!") Ginny felt absolutely miserable. She _had_ lost her chance to be alone with Harry because of Malfoy, he had gotten her so very angry, she had simply pounced without a thought. However, when the Slytherins walked by they would hiss, taunt, try to curse her, and on the occasion she accidentally walked past one they would stick out a leg and try to trip her.

Ron made it his own special duty to walk with Ginny everywhere, however embarrassing this was, she didn't mind all to much since Harry was with her. She noticed that their conversations were not as interesting as they had once been, and Harry never made eye contact anymore. Every time he would look at Ginny, he would quickly look away. It felt as though someone had just thrust a dagger into her heart each time it happened.

Professor McGonagall's classes were less then enjoyable now, her lips became quite thin whenever she looked at Ginny and was quite stiff whenever Ginny asked a question.

Worst of all was Draco Malfoy. Ginny hurried away whenever she saw him coming and would not go anywhere, where she thought he might be.

A great fear and loathing had groan in her heart. She was very fearful that Malfoy would indeed try to murder her the next time they were near each other, and then Ginny was also scared that she would leap on him once more. Though Ginny wished that Malfoy would drop dead, she wished more that he would cry. She had indeed damaged his pride, but it was nothing he couldn't win back, she wanted to make him cry. For a Slytherin to cry and be caught, was unforgivable.

When Wednesday came and it was Ginny's first flying lesson with Lola, it was less then enjoyable. It was pouring outside but Lola was quite happy to teach in such conditions anyway.

They stayed out for two hours and Ginny knew she was getting on her friend's nerves. For Ginny had the habit of falling off the broomstick she had borrowed from Leikela once again. When the lesson had ended, Lola shook her head gently.

"We'll have to work on that Gin", but she brightened quickly. "Next Wednesday, same time? Great!"

Ginny grumbled all the way back to the dormitory, little did she know that in exactly a day she would be spending an entire night with the person she least wanted to see.

Thursday morning was cloudy and cold. It was October third and already a month of school had passed by. Ginny was feeling slightly better, her anger was slowly diminishing and Harry had caught her eye the night before and not looked away.

She had her hair in a loose ponytail that morning when she trudged into Transfiguration class. She had a small smile on her lips as Colin described the _brilliant photographs_ he had taken the day before.

"Miss Weasley!" Professor McGonagall called from her desk just as Ginny was about to take her seat. "May I have a word with you before the class starts". This evidently, wasn't a question.

Ginny slowly walked towards the transfiguration teacher and looked up at her with a worried expression.

"You will accompany Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Filch scrubbing a dungeon floor tonight at ten o'clock Ginny", Professor McGonagall informed her with narrowed eyes.

Ginny felt herself blanch and her mouth was suddenly agape.

"T-tonight Professor?" Ginny faltered. "Does… my detention… have to be with Malfoy?"

Professor McGonagall folded her arms over her chest and looked crossly down at her.

"Yes Miss Weasley", she answered curtly. "I believe you and he should get along better, and working together while scrubbing the floors I think is an excellent idea. You will do it, and you will not fuss. You will only be able to return to bed when Mr. Filch is satisfied with the floor".

Ginny nodded slowly and turned feeling as though the world was crashing down on her once more. Malfoy… he wouldn't try to hurt her with Filch there would he? Filch was a squib though… What good could he possibly do?

During lunch Draco sat in his seat looking quite miserable. His father had been outraged with him! He had had the bad luck of receiving the letter during a meeting of Death Eaters. He had sworn to Draco when he returned home for the holidays that Draco he would receive a beating like no other before. These were not things he wished to dwell on.

His mother had been much more lenient, and had asked him in a letter if he had hit back. Draco had sworn to her that he had not, his mother would have been outraged if he had physically stricken a witch, any witch for that matter. He did not know whether or not she believed him, but she would never need to find out.

On top of all things, Professor McGonagall had informed him during breakfast that he would be having detention later that night with Filch and Ginny. He longed to push her down a case of stairs, but hadn't had the luck of meeting her near any. 

He rubbed his fingers across the fading bruise across his cheek. He had made sure anyone who said anything about his bruise, or the mishap in the corridor the week before, was personally cursed or punched in the face by either he himself, Crabbe, or Goyle. 

Draco was not about to be made a fool of again. He would make sure Ginny got what was coming to her…

Pansy was seated across the table from him, and he had only just become dimly aware that she was looking at him with a thoughtful expression.

"What?" He asked slightly irritated, taking a gulp of his pumpkin juice.

She grinned stupidly. "What are you going to do to _her_ Draco?" 

He stared in disbelief. She knew very well that Filch was going to be there, what was he supposed to do? Get expelled.

He longed to smack her across the head but rolled his eyes instead.

"Not that bright are we this morning?" He settled on asking.

She gave him a pouting look after this remark. "Draco", she whined. "I was only _asking_! I want her to get hurt! I'll do something to her if you want! Me and Millicent!"

Draco considered this for a moment, it would be easier to get Ginny back with two girls hurting her. But he shook his head afterwards, he wanted to get revenge himself. Pansy looked disappointed and shoved a piece of toast into her mouth in a very unattractive manner.

The evening came quickly and Ginny felt her stomach churn in a familiar way. She stood in the fifth year dormitory and sighed sinking down onto her large four-poster bed. It was still a half hour until ten o'clock. In the dormitory, instead of Dinah, Katherine, and Leikela, was Colin, Hermione, and Lola.

Her flying lesson with Lola had not gone as well as she had hoped, she had fallen off the broomstick seven times! The last time she had been twenty feet in the air and would have broken her neck if Lola had not have caught her in time. She moaned and turned her head to the side to see Colin sitting opposite of her.

She wondered mildly when Colin became so accustomed to coming into the girls room so very casually.

"It won't be that bad Ginny", Hermione tried unsuccessfully in a soothing tone. "Filch _will_ be there! Malfoy wouldn't dare try anything! And if he says anything, just tell him to shut his mouth".

"Yeah", Lola agreed. "If I were you, I'd try to hit him with a sponge!"

"No!" Hermione intervened sharply. "You'll get in even more trouble, Malfoy would tell on you that quick", she snapped her fingers.

"He's such a rat", Colin said mildly staring down at a fresh batch of photographs he had just developed, and everyone looked over at him.

Hermione frowned slightly in a disapproving way at Colin's presence, but no one else seemed to notice. Lola shuffled over and looked down at his photographs with interest.

"You know, you should be a photographer when you're older Colin", she told him.

"Really?" He asked excitedly beaming up at her. "I'd love to be a photographer! Especially in a the magic world!"

Ginny moaned and slowly sat up, she glanced down at her watch and sighed to see that only five measly minutes had passed. 

Ginny took a black elastic from her bedside table and pulled her hair back into a loose ponytail, she had taken it out earlier that day. She could just imagine what she'd look like when she returned back to the Gryffindor Tower, probably smelling disgustingly like cleaner.

"I might as well head down there", she sighed.

"I'll walk you down", Hermione offered standing up directly in front of Ginny.

Ginny's eyes widened and she had to tilt her head up to meet Hermione's eyes.

"Okay", she agreed in a voice of one who was going off to die in a war.

It took a surprisingly short time to reach the dungeons and when she looked up at Hermione helplessly, Hermione merely looked down at her with a pitying glance.

"I can hear Filch in there already, so don't worry, you'll be fine", Hermione managed a weak smile before hurrying away.

Ginny sighed and pulled her school cloak, closer around her body. She slowly pushed open one of the doors to the dungeons and standing inside was Filch and Mrs. Norris. Despite Mrs. Norris being absolutely awful to the students, Ginny had always been quite fond of her. On the ground in two very large buckets filled to the brim was Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover. A few sponges and wash clothes were floating at the top.

Filch looked down at her and smiled wickedly, showing off his yellow teeth.

"Well, this is the first time I've had the pleasure of having a Miss Weasley in my presence", he cackled. "Might as well get to work".

She looked down at her watch that still read ten to ten.

"It's not ten yet though Mr. Filch", she said.

He seemed slightly taken aback that she had had added Mr to the front of his name. But his eyes narrowed and he bent down sweeping Mrs. Norris off the floor.

"Doesn't matter, get started Miss Weasley", he pointed to the dark dungeon floor.

Ginny stared down at the cold stone floor and shuttered. She could not imagine what was covering the mouldy, oily, disgusting, dirt encrusted floor. She wondered when it was the last time it was cleaned. Probably not for years and years…

Suddenly the door behind her clanged open and Malfoy appeared. A serge of hatred went through her small body and she placed her hands on her hips with narrowed eyes.

"Ah", Mr. Filch purred to Mrs. Norris. "Look who's arrived my sweet. None other then Mr. Malfoy".

Malfoy took in the large dungeon room, he caught sight of Ginny and his eyes narrowed hatefully. He then took in the buckets of cleaner.

"We're not using magic?" His eyes widened and he looked outraged.

"No", Mr. Filch seemed to be highly enjoying this moment. "Get to work students, or there will be hell to pay".

Ginny slowly walked to a bucket and went down to her knees. She grimaced at the touch of the dirty, icy floor. She rolled back her sleeves before dipping a sponge inside the bucket.

She began to scrub the floor and felt disgusted with herself.

"Get started Malfoy!" Filch barked so suddenly a moment later that Ginny shrieked in surprise and fell back hard.

Malfoy snickered at her before glaring darkly at Filch.

"This isn't what students do", he snapped at Filch. 

Filch's eyes narrowed and he marched towards Malfoy. He and Filch were exactly the same height, and Ginny stared fearfully at the two. Would Filch hit him, or would Malfoy curse him?

"Get started", Filch said in one sharp sentence.

Malfoy narrowed his eyes into tiny slits but turned and stalked towards a bucket. He to went on his knees and began to reluctantly clean.

"Remember", Filch cackled once more. "You can't leave until I'm satisfied with these floors, so be in for a _long_ night".

Filch sank down into an old wooden chair. He sat stroking Mrs. Norris who was purring contently.

Ginny scrubbed for an hour and her hands became raw and soar. She had been barely able to clean a single space, the floor seemed to be layered with dirt, muck, and slime.

"Weasley", Malfoy snapped from across the room. "This is all your damn fault!"

Ginny's eyes widened and she quickly looked across the room. Filch had fallen asleep along with Mrs. Norris!

"M-my fault!" She snapped angrily, beginning to scrub vigorously. "You cursed me Malfoy! You had it coming to you! I should have been able to hit you all I wanted! You're a low life slime ball!"

"Oh ouch Weasley, that one hurt", he smirked sarcastically.

Ginny looked up with a scowl, Malfoy had stopped working and was simply sitting on the floor, his back against the dark stone wall. He was smirking at her, but his eyes told of his hatred towards her.

"Scum", she muttered trying to remain calm.

She dipped the sponge back into the bucket before scrubbing hard once again.

"Tell me Weasley", Malfoy said comfortably stretching. "What's Potter been like lately? Does he still wince when he looks at you? Or has he trained himself not to yet?"

Ginny stopped scrubbing, her cheeks becoming red. 'Don't answer him, don't answer him', she kept repeating to herself.

Malfoy snickered and smirked as he always did. Had she ever seen him smile? She didn't think so, all he ever did was smirk like an idiot.

"How did it feel having to grow all that hair back? You should have asked the matron to make sure it came back another colour instead of a horrible red".

"Go crawl into a hole and die", she muttered.

Malfoy laughed and from across the room Filch snorted in his sleep. Malfoy scrambled to his knees just in case Filch was about to wake up, but he simply turned is head to the side and continued sleeping.

Ginny began to scrub once again…

There was silence for twenty minutes before Draco said something once again.

"Weasley"- he began but Ginny cut him off.

"Shut-up Malfoy!" She snapped. 

She straightened on her knees and placed her hands on her hips, strands of hair coming loose and falling into her brown eyes.

Draco's eyes widened when Ginny straightened and glared at him with eyes of anger. Even in the dim lighting of the room he could see that the palms of her hands and her knees had become red. Her cheeks were flushed with colour and her brown eyes seemed brighter in the dark then usual. Some of her scarlet hair had come loose from her ponytail and had fallen across her cheeks.

She actually looked attractive…

Draco quickly shook his head to rid himself of these thoughts and smirked.

"Stop talking! I don't want to hear your voice! Just shut up for the rest of the detention!" 

Draco tipped his head to the side in an enjoyable way. "Hm… no, I don't think I will".

Ginny gave him a very exasperated look and shook her head, pushing back the loose strands of hair. 

Malfoy took this as a sign to continue. "You and Potter have any conversations lately?" He laughed wickedly as an image came into his head. "I can imagine you two, _if_ you ever get married. Potter can show off his stupid scar and you could tell them what you plan on looking like in a few years. Hell, you should do the curse and show them. For a job you could be security, anyone who caught a glimpse of you would turn and run!"

Ginny whipped her head up from where she was scrubbing, her body shaking.

"How's that bruise doing Malfoy? Healing alright?" She demanded.

Draco's smirk faded and his eyes narrowed darkly at her as they had been doing all that evening. He lifted a hand and ran his fingers across the soft area of the bruise, but said nothing.

She then continued on with her work. Draco slowly got to his knees once more and began to scrub the area he had been working on before. He dearly wished to curse her, but if he did, he was sure to get detention once again.

'Damn Filch', he thought. He slowly lifted his eyes from the ground and looked up at Ginny once more. She appeared to be angry, and he was glad he had been able to infuriate her once again. Were all Weasley's that easy to get mad? 

Suddenly Ginny threw her sponge to the floor and glared at him, he gave her a dirty look.

"What?" He snarled.

"You know what your problem is!" She snapped. "You're a jealous prat! You've always been jealous of Harry because he's famous and brave! You've always been jealous of my brother because he's better then you without even trying! And you've always been jealous of Hermione because she's ten times more clever then you could ever dream to be!" Draco could feel his body stiffen with hate and rage. "I'm not stupid Malfoy! I know exactly why you decided to humiliate me this year! You got bored with bugging them, because they won't sink to your level! So you got me in hopes of getting them furious and in trouble!"

Draco was silent for a moment, to angry to form any words.

"Aren't you a clever little witch", he finally spat. "I'm not jealous of stupid Potter and his hideous scar, I'm not jealous of _your brother_, I'd rather be me then be pathetic and poor like your family! And I'm especially not jealous of a disgusting mud-blood!"

"That's what you say", Ginny smirked, brushing a strand of scarlet hair from her face. "Everyone knows it, you're the only one who won't admit it though".

Draco could feel his fingers itching to grab his wand. How dare she? He, Draco Malfoy, jealous of Potter, Weasley, and Granger? He was not jealous of anyone! He was everything! He was a wealthy, pure-blood, Slytherin! Anything and everyone else was a pathetic form of life!

"I'd watch what you say Ginny", he breathed, trying to remain calm.

"What are you going to do?" She said, her face becoming serious. "You've already humiliated me in front of Harry and everyone else! I've been humiliated by you to many times this year to care all that much anymore! Go ahead and try it!"

Draco stared at her with darkening eyes. She was bluffing, he knew it all to well. She did indeed care, but was trying to sound brave. He could hear the quaver in her voice, and the fear behind her strong brown eyes.

Draco smirked and brushed a strand of white blonde hair from his steel grey eyes.

"Don't worry _Weasley_, I will".

Suddenly Filch woke with a start, as though someone had set off a gun. He leapt to his feet and stared down at the two students, of whom neither was doing any work. Ginny was on her knees, her hands on her hips, and her face quite red, and Draco didn't even have a sponge in his hand.

"What are you two dawdling for?" Filch roared. "Get back to work!"

Ginny and Malfoy had not been able to leave the dungeons until six that morning. They had scrubbed until their hands were bleeding and until they were falling asleep from exhaustion, mainly Ginny however.

Filch had sniffed in disapproval but had had to let them leave. He had personally escorted them to the hospital wing to have their hands (And Ginny's knees) heeled.

"Not even a layer gone from them floors", Filch kept muttering to himself. "Tell the headmaster I should, not trying hard enough. Both of you should return tonight and finish working on them".

Ginny whimpered and Malfoy growled. After having a stinging ointment applied onto their hands and knees, they were allowed to leave.

Ginny hurried down the halls as quickly as her tired body would allow her. Her knees could hardly bend from pain, and from being heavily bandaged. She leapt through the portrait hole hoping that Malfoy hadn't followed her.

She stood alone in the empty and dark common room. She couldn't believe what she had told Malfoy down in the dungeons. She had been so very angry with him, and was glad that she had not leapt on him in an attempt to knock his teeth out again. But sometimes words are more dangerous…

She felt her body shake as she weakly trudged up the staircase towards the girls dormitory. She had known she would regret what she was longing to say, but she had not been able to help herself. She had kept silent for an entire minute, and then she had gone and blown it. She would stay close to Ron for the next couple of days.

Sadly Ginny slept in the next morning, and there had been no one to help her get dressed. Her hands were still heavily bandaged and she was not allowed to remove them until after lunch. 

Ginny had been miserable to find out she was going to be late for Potions, so she simply skipped it, feeling she couldn't take having Professor Snape scream at her and take points from Gryffindor. 

She stood at the top step of the staircase leading down to the dungeons, waiting for the bell to ring so she could join her classmates on their way to charms class. She wrinkled her nose slightly, she wasn't exactly thrilled to be standing at the place she had come from only a few hours before.

The bell rang and then the noises of students could be heard. Colin was one of the last students to reach the top of the stairs, he was looking behind him with a strained expression on his face. Nearly stepping on his heels was Dinah, Leikela, and Katherine.

"Hi", Ginny said when the four looked up and saw her.

"Ginny!" Colin said with quite a relieved expression. "I was wondering where you were! I had to be by myself all of Potions".

"You weren't by yourself", Katherine snapped. "We were there".

Colin smiled weakly but didn't say anything.

"I'm sorry", Ginny said gently as the five began walking down the corridor together. "But I didn't get back to the dormitory until about six this morning! I was really tired, and I wouldn't have been able to do anything", she lifted up her hands to show them to her friends.

They all gave her a very sympathetic look. Ginny frowned but bit her lip to hide it and looked away. She didn't know why, but she was beginning to get tired of everyone giving her looks of sympathy.

Charms was quite uneventful for Ginny, she could do nothing but watch her friends perform difficult charm-work. However she was thinking through the entire class…

She had definitely gotten Malfoy very mad… She thought about the night before and pictured him in her head. His regular smirk had faded away and his cheeks had tinted pink. He had gotten so very angry that his grey eyes had turned in a raging storm… they had seemed strong and, well… attractive.

Ginny nearly shrieked in the middle of class, she frightened the wits out of a Hufflepuff behind her at the very least with her sudden movement. Her face was bright red and she was breathing quite hard, horrified at herself.

Had she, Ginny Weasley, just thought that Draco Malfoy, a disgusting, foul, disgraceful, Slytherin was attractive? Ginny felt her stomach turn. The ointment must have effected her head somehow, she wasn't thinking straightly.

She shuttered and felt dirty.

Lunch was quite enjoyable for Draco. He sat eating with a cold smile on his face, he was completely aware of Pansy giving him odd looks, but he didn't care.

Instead of going after Ginny that morning when they were released from Madam Pomfrey, he had gone the other direction. Not to Slytherin tower, but towards the owlery. 

He had been so very angry, that his body was shaking.

'Stupid little witch', he kept thinking over and over again. 'How dare she! She, and that damn trio will all get what's coming to them now!'

He looked about the owlery and found a small piece of parchment and a quill. He quickly scribbled out a letter in his perfect scrawl and looked down at it afterwards.

_Father, _it began.

_I know before you have asked if I could somehow bring Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger to you. I know that before you have also said it was to risky, and that I have agreed. But for an apology for my detention and your disappointment, I am willing to get them to you… at any cost father. I'll also throw in Ginny Weasley if I can get her. My deepest apologies and my love to mother,_

Draco

Draco's eyes flashed slightly insanely. He would show her, he would show them all. He would finally be rid of them, he wouldn't have to worry about them anymore. With them gone, no one would be able to say he was jealous of them

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Draco smirked and bit into a piece of toast, things were going good for him so far that day. He knew his father would be pleased, or say that it was still to risky, but would keep the idea in mind. Maybe the Dark Lord would be deeply impressed with him.

He thought about this for a moment and an evil grin spread across his lips. Things were definitely going good…

As Draco left the Great Hall he looked down at his hands which had returned to normal. He had watched Ginny from the Slytherin table remove her own bandages. He had watched her smile with relief when she saw they were back to normal. She had then disappeared under the table to remove her knee bandages and he had looked away.

He reached the top of the stairs in the main corridor to find that it was blocked off. Pansy was by his side, and Goyle and Crabbe were directly behind them.

"Move!" Pansy snarled.

The group turned to reveal none other then Ginny, Colin, Lola, and Granger. 

"Shut-up you ugly pug", Lola snarled back placing a hand on her hip, Pansy hissed between her teeth.

Draco however was not looking at Pansy, or Lola. He had locked eyes with those of Ginny's. They both had their eyes narrowed, looks of peer venom being passed between them.

They silently insulted each other with their minds, both wishing dearly to say out loud what they thought of each other.

"Move", Malfoy spat finally.

Granger, who obviously didn't want anything to start took hold of Lola's sleeve and began to move her away. Both Pansy and Lola were scowling at each other with flashing eyes.

Colin leaped back immediately and Ginny began to step away. Malfoy stomped forward and on reflex his hand shot out and pushed Ginny backwards. Ginny gasped and suddenly Malfoy was being wrenched backwards, Ginny had grabbed onto his robes.

They both tumbled down the stairs, each stone step bruising them as they thumped all the way down.

"Draco!" He heard Pansy scream from atop the stairs as he fell.

"Ginny!" Three voices shrieked in stereo. 

Ginny fell on top of him and Draco, who had already felt pain erupt in every part of his body, moaned dramatically as her weight sunk onto him.

"Get off!" He snarled as best he could.

Ginny pushed herself off of him and Draco pushed himself up on his hands from where he lay on his stomach. His hair had fallen down in front of his face and he was glaring darkly at Ginny who looked pale and frightened.

"You!" He snapped. "Tried to kill me!"

Before Ginny could reply, someone suddenly grabbed both of them by the backs of their school robes and yanked them roughly up off the floor.

Draco felt himself be set on his feet but Ginny nearly slipped and fell down to the floor.

"I already heard you two had detention last night for fighting in the halls!" Mrs. Arabella Figg hissed darkly, looking angrily from both Draco to Ginny.

Mrs. Figg had been the Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers for the last couple of years, she was an incredible instructor, but could deal out punishments like Snape could to the Gryffindors. 

"Now this?" She nearly screamed the two words. "You both could have been killed! You both could have had your heads smashed in! You Mr. Malfoy, pushing her, and you Miss. Weasley taking him down with you! This is not how respectable students of Hogwarts behave", Mrs. Figg told them darkly. "I will not ask you both to apologize to each other, because I _know_ neither of you will mean it", Draco was only mildly aware that everyone who had been at the top of the stairs, were now at the bottom forming a circle around himself, Ginny, and Mrs. Figg. "You will both have detention once more. No points will be taken from either of your houses, no letters home, but you will again be with Mr. Filch tomorrow night. I will inform you tomorrow what you shall be doing and what time. Good-day to you both!"

Mrs. Figg turned and walked stiffly away. Draco's eyes were wide as he slicked his hair quickly back. He couldn't believe he had just gotten another detention, he had momentarily forgotten about the pain he was feeling.

"You bloody wanker!" Lola shrieked at him a second later. "Look what you've done!"

"What I've done?" Malfoy hissed, Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy standing close behind him now. "She brought me down the stairs, I did nothing but move her!"

"You pushed me you great prat!" Ginny snapped, still trying to stand on her feet. "Oh! I hate you so much!"

Then the four Gryffindors turned on their heels and stormed back up the stairs. Hermione having an arm around Ginny's shoulders, and Lola having an arm around her waist. 

Draco couldn't believe his dumb luck, he had only just finished detention with Ginny, and now he had another with her the next night!

**** _A/N whoa! Long chapter! That's alright though, I got a lot of stuff into this one. They did have conversations in this chapter, though not very 'happy', they were there! Please, I don't want this story to turn into anything like fluff romance, so WARN me if it starts going that way. I tend to start turning thingy mushy when I get into writing romance! Hope you liked the chapter! Please Read and Review and thank you to all the people that have already!_

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	8. In the Kitchen with Cookies

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****I own nothing! Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling! A very spectacular author!

Chapter 8, In the Kitchen with Cookies

Ginny grumbled bitterly early Saturday morning as she sat in one of the large squishy chairs by the fire. She was going to have detention with Malfoy _again_ that night.

She blew at a piece of hair that hung down on her cheek. She looked over at Ron, Harry, and Hermione who were all slouched over large amounts of schoolwork. 

Hermione had been absolutely furious after the incident the day before and had taken twenty points from Slytherin since Mrs. Figg had not. She had informed Ron and Harry immediately at the sight of the two boys, Lola and Hermione had both had to hold the furious redhead back afterwards.

"That slimy git!" Ron roared. "I'll kill him! I'll murder him! I'll"- After this a series of swearwords followed.

"He's already in trouble", Harry said though he looked quite angry as well, Ginny was pleased to see this.

His brilliant green eyes were flashing with malice and he looked over at Ginny.

"Are you alright Ginny?" He asked softly.

Ginny felt her face heat up with embarrassment but she smiled, forgetting the aching pain all over her body, and nodded. 

"I'm fine"… she had murmured.

Ginny tipped her head thoughtfully to the side now looking at her three friends. She let a sigh leave her lips as Ron peeked over Hermione's shoulder to catch a glimpse of her work.

"Ron!" Hermione snapped and Ron went red.

"Come on Hermione!" He pleaded. "I don't get this last part! I only need a little bit!"

Hermione glared darkly at him. "Ron Weasley! You'll get no where in life by copying! I thought you'd know that by now!"

Ron's eyes flashed and once again, another argument started between the two. Harry had looked up and was now looking helplessly at the two before grinning and shaking his head.

Ginny sighed softly once again. They made such a team, the trio. So perfect together, all looking so very different. Harry with his sleek black hair, his lightning scar, and beautiful green eyes. Hermione with her lovely curls, her cleverness, and sharpness. And finally Ron with his red hair, freckles, and love for _nearly _ everyone… even if he wouldn't show it.

Would she ever fit in with them? She hoped so… Draco was wrong, Harry looked at her now and smiled. She was sure he didn't think of her how she had been before… she was sure, wasn't she?

"Ginny!" A voice suddenly broke into her thoughts and she looked up to see Colin smiling down at her.

He stood dressed in simple muggle jeans and a blue, long sleeved shirt. In his hands he held his camera tightly, he seemed to be shaking with excitement as he gazed down at her. Ginny tipped her head to the side curiously.

"Colin?" She began but suddenly he grabbed her by the hand and pulled her up from where she sat.

She gasped as Colin began to pull her through the Common Room, quite quickly. His hand tangled around the sleeve of her peach coloured Weasley jumper and slipped into her own hand.

He looked back at her, not noticing or not caring that he was now leading her by the hand, excitedly.

"You have to come and see this Ginny!" He exclaimed happily. "It's the most brilliant thing I've ever seen!"

"Oh!" She said as best she could as they turned a corner.

Colin brought Ginny to the entrance hall and straight out into the cold morning air. She shivered as they continued to run, and her side had begun to ache.

"Colin!" She moaned. "Where are you taking me?"

"We're almost there Ginny!"

They were heading towards Hagrid's hutt and Ginny began to hear the loud speech of the Care of Magical Creatures teacher. Instead of bringing her towards Hagrid, Colin brought her around the small Hutt. They stopped by the corner and Colin placed a finger on his lips. Ginny nodded and tried to stifle her gasps for breath.

He slowly peered around the corner and Ginny ducked under him to peer around the corner herself. Her eyes widened at the sight that was before her.

It was a centaur… a beautiful centaur.

Ginny stared transfixed at the creature before her, only had she ever seen one in a book before. She had heard Ron speak about them before, but he had never spoke of it's beauty. The centaur stood tall with a shining body of sleek chestnut, and the face appearing like that of a man seemed to be perfect… unflawed and pure.

Hagrid stood high and tall before the beautiful creature on the path leading into the Forbidden Forest. They were lost in a dull conversation about the stars and planets.

"Isn't he brilliant?" Colin asked in a breathless whisper. 

"Yes"… Ginny breathed. "How'd you see him Colin?"

"I came down here because I was going to ask Hagrid about our next lesson", Colin said in a quick whisper. "But when I was coming around the corner I saw him!" He waved his hand towards the centaur. "I wanted to take a picture really badly! So I ran back to the Common Room and got my camera, and then I saw you looking like you were bored out of your mind, so I brought you along to".

"But won't you attract attention if the flash goes off?" Ginny asked, her eyes still fixed on the creature before her.

"I'll just turn it off".

He raised the camera to his eyes and seemed to be focusing in on it. Ginny frowned a moment later when she didn't hear a click, she looked up and began, "Col"-

Suddenly a blinding flash went off and Ginny could only see blotches before her eyes.

"Wha was that?" Hagrid's booming voice suddenly roared, and the sounds of the centaurs hooves pounding nervously against the ground could be heard.

Ginny nearly shrieked, but she clamped a hand down over her mouth, turned and began to run. Colin was tripping over her heels.

They burst through the entrance hall doors and Ginny burst into a fit of giggles, Colin stared at her incredulously, his cheeks red from running in the cold.

"I thought you turned the flash off!" She laughed, torn between amusement and fright.

Colin stared at her and simply shrugged, his cheeks going red. "I thought I did"…

Ginny grinned and took his hand in hers. They began to walk down the hall together without speaking.

"I'll be wanting a picture of the centaur", Ginny said.

"Of course".

~~~

Night came to quickly for Ginny and she found herself standing in her school robes, ten o'clock Saturday night, in the middle of one of the largest corridors in the entire school. Draco Malfoy was standing near to her, they both had their arms crossed and were watching silently as Filch stroked Mrs. Norris in his arms.

"Well?" Malfoy demanded after a moment of complete silence. "We've been waiting for five minutes! What are we doing?"

Filch glared hatefully at Malfoy, then at Ginny. His scowl turned into a hideous smile and he stroked Mrs. Norris even more lovingly.

"Tonight"… he purred. "You'll be polishing the picture frames… all of them!" He howled with laughter at the expressions on the two students faces. "Remember", he pointed to his eyes and then to them. "I'll be watching. You have polish, scrubs, and a step ladder over that way. It's just like the other night, no going to bed until I've said so".

Ginny moaned and watched as Filch crossed the hall and disappeared into a room. She felt like stomping her foot and screaming. She'd rather have been dying at the bottom of a dark damp pit, then be having detention with Malfoy again.

She looked towards Malfoy to see what he was thinking and he was obviously having the exact same thoughts. For his eyes were narrowed, and his grey eyes were a haze of normally carefully hidden emotions.

Slowly Ginny crossed the hall, took a tin of polish and a scrub, chose a picture frame, and began to polish.

"Good work dear!" A fragile old woman in a blue satin dress spoke to her from the picture, she smiled weakly in return.

"This is so stupid!" Malfoy groaned from across the hall, he was once again leaning against it with a stubborn glare. "If _you_ hadn't have brought me down the stairs, I wouldn't be here!"

Ginny whirled on the spot, her brown eyes flashing dangerously.

"What was I supposed to do?" She snapped. "Fall down the stairs and let you laugh with your stupid friends, you great prat! I'm glad I brought you down with me, I hope the bruises hurt!"

Malfoy simply lifted a brow and a look of amusement came onto his face. He smirked and absent-mindedly slicked back a loose strand of blonde hair.

"My my"… he said quite comfortably. "I believe you've begun to have a temper like your brother's. That's not good Weasley".

"You're the one who only gets me this angry Malfoy! Are you happy? You get me raging! Now get to work!"

Malfoy's smirk faltered and then disappeared. His grey eyes became like steel and sent waves of icy vibrations towards her.

"Don't you _dare_ try to order _me_ around Weasley", he spat harshly.

Ginny shook her head in a disgusted sort of way and then turned to continue scrubbing away at the picture frame. 

Draco glared across the large hallway at the small scarlet haired teenager polishing a large picture frame. How easily she could anger him… he didn't understand, she angered him just as easily as Potter and her brother did, possibly even more.

How was it that she dared to say things to him? She was of lower stature then him! She was poor, red-haired, covered in freckles, and associated with _muggle-borns_! She could not say anything about him, Draco Malfoy! He was everything, he had everything anyone ever wanted!

He was _very_ attractive, a pure-blood, and wealthy beyond her imagination! He was everything a wizard should be. He scowled like a very spoiled child.

What was it about her, that made him want to push her down a set of stairs every time he saw her? What was it about her that infuriated him?

He tipped his head lightly to the side and examined her. 

As he watched her scrub the gold frame with an unreadable expression on her face he noticed something. She wasn't horrible ugly and disfigured like the rest of her family was, she was actually quite attractive.

Draco scowled even darker at these thoughts, he would have cursed himself it he had been anyone else but himself. 

'What the hell are you thinking about Malfoy?' He thought disgustedly to himself. 'Get a hold of yourself'.

He slowly walked towards the polish and scrubs. His father would hear about this detention as well! He would make sure of it! This was slave work! He, Draco Malfoy, had never so much as lifted a wash cloth at home to wipe down a table. That was what servants and house elves were for! He would not be treated like scum, even if Ginny Weasley would. 

'How degrading it is', he thought as he began to miserably polish a bronze picture frame across the hall from the girl. 'She is actually willing to clean without complaint… pitiful. _My _future family, my wife, and my children, will not so much as lift a finger to _house clean_. Such a thing is unthinkable!'

As Draco cleaned reluctantly he made little progress. When Filch checked in on them, Filch screamed angrily at him for doing so little, and then left once again. Instead of finding Filch frightening, Draco had actually found it quite amusing. 

It was nearly midnight when Draco was broken away from his bitter thoughts to see that Ginny was pulling the small step ladder towards a picture frame much higher then she could reach. The sound rang in his ears, and Draco narrowed his eyes in annoyance.

Ginny appeared to be getting tired, it showed in her large brown eyes, and on her pale face. She climbed up to the top of the small stepladder and began to scrub the thick picture frame unenthusiastically.

A wicked idea crossed Draco's mind and he casually walked towards Ginny. She however did not seem to notice, and was lost in her own thoughts.

Draco smirked as he began to walk past the old wooden ladder, his foot shot out and easily kicked the leg in.

A squeal admitted from Ginny Weasley's lips and she fell hard to the corridor floor, landing on her butt.

Her scarlet hair fell into her face and her face became red with embarrassment. Draco laughed happily and felt much better. Ginny whipped her head around and glared up at Draco from where he stood four feet away. He simply smirked down at her and ran a hand over his slicked back hair.

"What Weasley?" He asked.

"You are-! You are-!" She spluttered trying to find the right words to shout at him. "You are the most horrible person I know!" She slowly rose from the ground, wincing slightly as she did so.

"Oh ouch Weasley, that one hurt".

She pointed a finger at him and stomped her foot. "You are such a spoiled brat!" She hissed. "You think you can get away with anything! You won't though! You just wait! One of these days you're going to get in very big trouble, and no one's going to be there to help you! Not even your precious father, who you run to whenever things start looking bad for you!"

"Are you implying"… he began somewhat slowly, trying to process everything she had just spoken to him. "That I wouldn't be able to get out of trouble, without anyone's help?"

"Exactly what I'm implying!" She snapped.

Draco raised a brow and then shrugged lightly. What did he care? He _knew_ he could get out of anything, without anyone's help. He stretched luxuriously and smirked turning to continue on with his detention. Yet, her words kept tugging on the back of his mind.

"Weasel"… he muttered under his breath.

"Oh yes, and you're the little white ferret".

Draco whirled on his heels at this comment, his grey eyes flashed angrily and he stared down at her. She had a look of surprise on her face as though she had not meant for him to hear her last comment. Her cheeks became redder then they already were and she took a slight step backwards, he obviously looked quite menacing.

He wished to curse her! He wanted to hit her! But he could do nothing, his body was shaking with so much anger.

They were silent for an hour more, each very angry with each other, possible hating each other more then they had before the detention. 

Ginny could feel her body shaking with fright and anger. When he had turned after her comment about him being a ferret, he had looked as though he were about to wring her neck. She had felt her body freeze and become stiff, she had known she had looked absolutely stupid, but she had never known Malfoy to frighten someone like that.

He had actually looked very frightening… she had been very afraid. When had Draco Malfoy looked dangerous enough to kill someone? He had always just been a whiner or sorts…

She shuttered slightly, he wouldn't do anything to her would he? No…

~~~

The detention had indeed ended with a bang. Ginny had done most of the work and her hands had been aching and red. However, the rest of the detention had not ended peacefully and without conversation. There had been a few more fights and arguments, one resulting in a tin of polish staining the front of Malfoy's robes. 

Filch had been furious to come out into the corridor, wondering what all the noise was about, to see the floors and walls stained with polish, and two students covered in head to toe in it. In desperate attempts to save themselves from another detention together the two had both pointed at each other accusingly. 

However, Filch had been so furious he had simply chased them both away. Neither had received another detention.

Ginny had stayed in a bathtub the remainder of the night. She had stayed in the hot bubble filled water for nearly an hour and a half. Resting her aching muscles and thinking about how much she hated Malfoy.

She slept until noon that Sunday and the finished the remainder of her homework.

The following weeks Ginny avoided Malfoy the best she could, and unbeknownst to her, he was doing the same thing. She stayed mainly in the Gryffindor tower, or in classrooms, and even sometimes in the kitchen.

It had gotten quite cold outside, and wherever she went people were wearing cloaks or sweaters. Ginny herself was either wearing her school cloak or her peach jumper.

Then Halloween had come, and the visit to Hogsmeade was arousing a stir of excitement through the students third year and above.

It was a very cold, raining Saturday morning, and Ginny was sitting sleepily at the Gryffindor table. She had her hair in a long braid trailing down her back, dressed in her peach jumper and a pair of old faded jeans (the knees had begun to wear out).

She nibbled on a piece of buttered toast, ignoring the conversation going on between Dinah, Leikela, and Katherine. She was only half listening to Lola telling her she was improving on the broomstick.

She had decided not to go to to Hogsmeade that day. Most likely Malfoy would be going, and going anywhere where he might be, was not exactly welcoming to Ginny.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione left breakfast before the mail arrived. Errol swooped down in front of Ginny, sending her piece of toast flying to the floor. Ginny frowned slightly and tried to upright the old owl.

"Oh Errol", she murmured.

She gazed down at what he had brought, a letter and a package wrapped in dull brown paper.

She opened the letter addressed to both herself and Ron.

_Ron and Ginny_, she read her mother's familiar scrawl.

_I hope your all well and that you're completing your schoolwork! We received an owl from Charlie earlier this week, he's doing quite well! He said that a newly hatched Norwegian Ridgeback was sent to him, said it gave him a nasty new burn! Bill wrote and said he was doing quite good as well. I do hope if you see Fred and George on one of your Hogsmeade trips, you'll tell them not to do anything stupid. Oh Ginny, do try not to get into any more trouble! I've sent you both a box of cookies each, oatmeal and raison for Ginny (I know it's your favourite) and chocolate chip for Ron. Love you both! (Behave!) Mum._

Ginny grinned looking down at the package. She absolutely loved Oatmeal raison cookies! She never knew why, but they had always been her favourite.

She gathered the package and letter up in her arms and decided to go and find Ron before he and the others left for Hogsmeade.

"See you later Lola", she said and Lola smiled with a mouth full of eggs.

Ginny sped around the castle for an hour, a frown deepening on her face as she searched for her brother, Harry, and Hermione.

'Maybe they've already gone! They probably have by now', she thought as she turned down the corridor leading towards the Hufflepuff tower. 'Maybe they went into the kitchen for a quick snack though?'

She tickled a pear in a large portrait, it laughed, turned into a doorknob, and then she entered the warm kitchen. She smiled breathing in the smells of delicious food. At least fifty small house elves were hurrying about the kitchen happily, dressed in clean towels draped around them like togas.

"Weezy!" She heard a familiar voice squeal and suddenly a house elf with a high voice wrapped its arms about her waist, nearly knocking her backwards. "Inny Weezy!"

Ginny smiled and patted the house elf's back gently. "You haven't seen my brother Ron, have you Dobby?" She asked.

Dobby let go of her small waist and shook his head so violently that his large bat like ears slapped him in the face.

"No miss!" He squeaked. "Not seen Harry Potter's Weezy for days!"

"Oh", Ginny murmured disappointedly.

She had missed him then…

"Will Inny Weezy stay for hot chocolate?" Dobby asked.

Before Ginny could answer Dobby had taken her by the hand and was leading her towards a hot fire on the other end of the kitchen. She sat down on a warm stone ledge and laid the package of cookies down beside her.

Nearly immediately, three house elves were bringing her a tray consisting of a large mug of steaming hot chocolate, a small bowl full of fluffy white marshmallows.

"Thank-you", she said blushing at the cheeks.

The house elves seemed very pleased with themselves and hurried away to continue on with their work. Ginny stayed and spoke happily with Dobby for nearly a half hour. It was nearly ten o'clock and she knew that nearly everyone in the castle had gone down to Hogsmeade. She sipped at her half full mug of hot chocolate and felt her lids become slightly heavy. Hot chocolate always seemed to make her sleepy, and she did not understand why.

Dobby ran off to continue on with his work and Ginny took a bite out of a very favourable cookie. However she heard the faint laughter of a pear being tickled and set down her mug of hot chocolate. The kitchen door began to open and Ginny's eyes widened. She saw a glitter of white blonde hair…

She dove under a table and sat on her knees, in her hands she clutched one of her cookies. She didn't want to be seen by him! What was he doing still at the castle? Wasn't he supposed to be in Hogsmeade with everyone else? He always went!

She could hear Malfoy's drawling voice speaking to the house elves.

"I've missed breakfast", he said quite simply, but his voice was cold and demanding. "I need something to eat".

The house elves were more then happy to serve him, she could see their feet hurrying about from under the table, rushing to make him a scrumptious breakfast.

Ginny slowly began to move, but then…

CLUNK!

Ginny moaned in pain and clutched the top of her head, no more then two seconds later the white table cloth was thrown up and Draco Malfoy was peering under the table. At the sight of her, crouched under the table and clutching her throbbing head, a familiar amused smirk appeared on his lips.

"You are pathetic", he said.

She groaned and pushed past him slowly raising to her feet. She began to rub the top of her head where she had banged it painfully against the roof of the table.

She sank down on the warm stone ledge where she had been sitting before and breathed deeply, trying to make her head stop spinning.

"Do you normally eat cookies under tables in the kitchen?" Malfoy asked her grinning coldly.

"Shut-up Malfoy", she mumbled in return. 

She was hoping he would take the tray of food waiting for him now on the table and leave, but he took a seat beside Ginny on the ledge instead. 

He was looking at her, a very amused look on his pale face.

"What?" She asked frowning at him, placing her hands uncomfortably on her lap.

He did not answer and she sat there, feeling hatred and discomfort around him. She should have punched him the arm, or tried to curse him, or screamed swear words at him, but instead she shifted slowly away from him and took her package of cookies up in her arms.

"Do you want one?" She asked quite miserably. 

She didn't want him to take one, she doubted that he would anyway, but she had to be the better person, didn't she? Didn't she want him to cry though? Didn't she want to hurt him… she was to sleepy to think right.

He wrinkled his nose down at the package and then stared darkly at her.

"I suppose your _mother_ made those for you?" He asked lifting his head. "My mother doesn't cook, she doesn't need to. We have everything made for us, or we buy it. Not like you could do that of course".

"Good for you", she said sarcastically. "Are you going to take the cookie or not?"

He narrowed his eyes at her and looked away. She shrugged mildly and placed the package of cookies down beside her, taking a large bite out of the cookie in her hand.

She chewed uncomfortably in the silence. Dobby was looking horrified at the two of them sitting beside each other from the other side of the kitchen, but the other house elves were ignoring them completely.

"Aren't you supposed to be in Hogsmeade?" She then asked coldly, after swallowing her mouth full of cookie.

"What's the point?" He sniffed. "I've been there to many times already. Crabbe and Goyle went, Pansy along with them. They can all buy stink pellets if they want, I'd rather spend my time on more eventful things".

Ginny snorted. "Devising plans on how to torment the first years are you?"

Malfoy whipped his head around and glared darkly down at her. She nibbled at her cookie with a grin on her face, an image of Draco writing out plans to taunt people late at night was in her mind. 

"Why aren't you going?" Malfoy asked coldly, choosing to ignore her last statement.

Ginny looked up at him, a look of seriousness on her face. "I _was_ trying to avoid you", she answered truthfully. "But obviously that didn't work".

"Can't handle me can you?" He asked with a raised brow, looking smug.

Ginny wrinkled her nose at him. "I can and I have!" She informed him flatly. "But I'd rather not get detention again".

Malfoy gave her this disbelieving look and straightened his shoulders, as though suddenly having more pride.

Before Ginny could comment she slammed the last bit of her cookie into her mouth, she couldn't deal with him today. Not today…

They were silent for several minutes, Ginny began to sip at her hot chocolate again.

"Give me a cookie Weasley", Malfoy said suddenly beside her.

Ginny turned and stared at him, a look of disbelief on her face. Draco had a hand out and lifted a brow when she did not move, or make any indication that she would. Her mouth was slightly agape and her eyes wide.

"You offered me one, so give me one Weasley".

Ginny shrugged, still feeling thoroughly shocked, and took a cookie from the box beside her. She lifted it towards Draco and he took it quickly… His fingers however brushed against her own and a strange sensation went down Ginny's spine.

She wrenched her hand away quickly and Draco stared at her as though she were mad, a cookie in his hand.

"Hell Weasley, what's your problem?"

'What had that been?' Ginny wondered completely bewildered. She had never felt anything like that before, it had felt strange… but good. She shivered.

She turned her head just as Malfoy took a large bite out of the cookie. He didn't eat like Ron who slopped his food everywhere, or Harry who took small bites. He took large bites, but managed to look polite and well-mannered.

'Well at least his parents taught him one good thing, table manners', she thought.

He finished the cookie quickly and shrugged lightly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ginny demanded, feeling slightly edgy, not understanding what the strange sensation had been… or meant.

Malfoy turned his head and smirked at her. "What do you think it meant?" He asked.

"I don't know!" She snapped and jumped up gathering the package of cookies in her arms.

Malfoy grabbed her sharply by the wrist, and the strange sensation went through her entire body this time. Her eyes widened and she wrenched free.

"What the hell is with you?" Malfoy demanded, he obviously thought she was acting a bit mental. "You're acting even madder then you normally do Weasley, and that's saying something".

"Let's make a deal Malfoy!" Ginny snapped, her body shaking with confusion, fright, and anger. What was he pulling by making his touch make her feel so… different. "You stay away from me and I'll stay away from you! No more trying to get me to get my brother, Harry, or Hermione!"

With that Ginny turned on her heels and hurried out of the kitchen. She ran as fast as her short legs would take her to Gryffindor tower.

_*** A/N That was chapter eight!!! Yes… well I figured I should put some of the tingling stuff in now. I was a bit mad about the part where they're in the kitchen and Malfou asks her what's wrong. I know he doesn't say it exactly nicely, but he still asks, and I didn't think that sounded very much like him… oh well… I hope you liked the chapter anyway!_

I'm really sorry about not updating as often as I did before with this chapter. This week was so busy with school work and a lot of friends are having problems right now. Of course when I went to go and load this chapter it won't let me until Sunday, so I guess no one will be reading this until Monday. Ugh! Please please Read and Review! Thank you to all of you that already have! ^-^

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	9. Fall

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****I own nothing! Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling! A very spectacular author!

Chapter 9, Fall

Draco sat with wide shocked eyes in the kitchen, he was only dimly aware of his old house elf shooting him incredibly nasty looks from across the room.

She had gone completely insane! He had never seen her act in such a way. He had only been teasing her, like he always did, about her mother's cookies, which he had been highly disappointed to find were very good.

After a moment of thinking he became angry with himself.

'What are you doing?' He asked himself darkly. 'Why are you even worried about the way she acted? She simply lost it this time, you drove her over the edge! You wanted it that way, remember?'

Yet he could not get the image of her face out of her mind. She had leapt up as though the end of the world were upon them. Her eyes had been wide, and her face pale. The expression had been hard to read, it had been angry, yet her eyes were wide as though from shock and confusion.

He shook himself mentally for thinking of such things, he had better things to do. He was still waiting for the answer from his father.

Excitement rose inside Draco, and his eyes glittered maliciously. He stood and grabbed the tray of food set out for him and then left the kitchen.

He could not wait to see Potter, Weasley, and Granger screaming. He knew his father, if he agreed, would make sure they screamed. 

Ginny sat huddled in the Common Room in one of the large squishy couches by the fire for the remainder of the day. She was completely lost in thoughts and did not notice when Colin snapped a picture of her, nor did she notice Rebecca walk by with a snicker directed at her.

Ginny only looked up near dinner time when the portrait door swung open and Gryffindors began to poor in. She was slightly in a daze and was only dimly aware when Hermione, Harry, and Ron began walking towards her.

'What could it have meant?' She thought. 'I still don't understand!'

"Hey Gin!" Ron sunk down into a seat beside her, his cheeks were red from the cold, and a smile was on his lips. 

"Hello Ginny!" Hermione and Harry both said happily from either side of her as they to both took seats.

All three of them were holding bags of sweets and tricks (Hermione had bought a new book). Ron began to rummage through his bag and took out a large bag of Bertie Botts Every Flavoured Beans.

"Here Ginny", he said tossing her the bag, which she caught quickly before it hit her in the face. "We all bought you something, we figured you might want something, since you didn't come today".

"Yes, here you go", Hermione pulled out a thermos like container and handed it gently to the scarlet haired girl. "I was able to get you some butterbeer", she announced happily.

"Thanks!" Ginny beamed.

Harry was still rummaging around through his bag until he lifted a box of chocolate frogs towards her. He grinned, his eyes sparkling.

"Found em", he said triumphantly.

He handed them to Ginny and she reached out, a smile on her lips, showing off her white teeth. She took the box from his hands and her fingers gently brushed over his own. She paused, both still holding the box, the tips of her fingers over his own.

She looked thoughtfully down at her hands, as though expecting something to happen.

"Ginny?"

'Isn't something supposed to happen?' She wondered. 

"Hey! Ginny!" Ginny blinked and looked up to see all three of them staring at her with odd expressions on her face, she felt herself go crimson. "Are you going to take the box?"

"Uh, oh yeah, thanks Harry!"

"No problem".

She took the box and set it down beside her, feeling confused and heavy-headed.

"Oh, uh, Ron! Mum sent us a box of cookies each", she informed him taking out his cookies and passing them to him.

"Brilliant! Mum makes the best cookies", he exclaimed opening the package immediately.

Ginny nodded without feeling and propped herself up on her elbow against the arm of the chair. Ron gave Hermione and Harry each a cookie and the trio began talking happily to one another.

Ginny gazed at Harry, her cheeks flushed slightly. She didn't get it, how come Harry didn't make her feel different when they touched? She furrowed her brow in confusion. And if Malfoy made her feel tingly… what did that mean?

The next day was Halloween and Ginny though of nothing else. She was completely happy and content that day. She laughed with Ron, Hermione, and Harry, and especially with Colin, she even had a conversation with Dinah, Katherine, and Leikela, even though it was only about another plan to get Colin with Dinah.

That night she slept comfortably and without dreams, yet the next day brought her crashing down to reality.

She hurriedly walked down into the Common Room that morning, dressed in her school robes. She swung her bag over her shoulder, she felt slightly light-headed from rushing out of bed so quickly.

Yet when she entered, she saw the Gryffindor team together. They were all having a deep conversation, but Rebecca, sadly, noticed when she entered. She sneered smugly and lifted her head as though telling her, 'I made the team and you didn't Weasley! Ha ha!'

Just as she was walking out of the portrait hole however, the entire team followed. Lola caught up with Ginny and swung an arm casually around her shoulder.

"Hey Gin", she said quite happily, her eyes sparkling excitedly.

"What's going on?" Ginny asked curiously.

"Oh, the first Quidditch team of the season is taking place tomorrow!" She breathed and seemed to add a little skip to her walk. "I'm so excited! Not like I haven't played in a game before though, my parents sign me up for the summer leagues every summer!"

"Oh", Ginny mumbled, how could she forget that the first Quidditch game was taking place the next day. Gryffindor verses Ravenclaw. "Great!"

"Oh you'll come won't you?" Lola asked and Ginny nodded, smiling weakly. "Brilliant! It'll be absolutely brilliant!"

Ginny's morning did not go so well after this. Rebecca continued to gloat so Ginny could hear at the breakfast table, and Dinah seemed to be furious with Ginny again because she had been spending to much time with Colin. She had double Potions next and Snape had been quick to take ten points from Gryffindor when Ginny had slipped and knocked the books out of a Slytherin students arms.

When lunch came Ginny didn't feel the need to return to the Great Hall so Rebecca could continue on gloating from that morning. She wondered through the charms corridor and leaned against one of the cool stone walls. Her stomach rumbled softly, only loud enough for her to hear. She would go and eat later… 

Ginny did not open her eyes when she heard a soft sound, something like a swish of a cloak… But the hair on her arms began to tingle oddly, as though someone were watching her. She opened her eyes and shrieked in surprise.

Draco Malfoy was standing only a foot away looking down at her with narrowed grey eyes, though he was sporting his ever famous smirk.

Ginny pressed a hand to her heart and breathed deeply before glaring darkly up at Malfoy.

"What are you doing?" She gasped.

He was silent, simply staring down at her. She could feel herself switching from foot to foot, and could feel an uncomfortable blush rising up in her cheeks. When she could no longer bear him simply looking down at her with eyes like steel, he spoke.

"You wanted a truce Weasley?" He asked in a voice as quiet as a whisper.

At this her mouth slightly opened and it was her turn to simply stare up at him. She wondered when he had gotten so very tall, he was perhaps Harry's height or taller. His skin was so pale and white, and his blonde hair never seemed to be out of place. Yet it was his eyes that she was staring into now, so much like cold steel, they sent a shiver down her spine and she fought the urge to shutter.

Was he actually going to agree with a truce? She wondered.

"I… I"… she couldn't form the words she wanted to, her eyes still locked to his. "I… Uh"…

A look of complete utter amusement flashed across his features and she quickly shook her head, breaking all eye contact she had with him. He couldn't laugh at her! She wouldn't let him! He had laughed at her to much over the school year!

"Malfoy!" She began but suddenly a voice ripped through the air interrupting her.

"Malfoy!"

Ron, Harry, and Hermione had come around the corner of the Charms corridor. Ron looked absolutely furious, his brown eyes were like fire, and his red hair was slightly messed. Harry seemed just as furious and both boys were stomping towards Malfoy looking ready to strike.

Hermione was hurrying behind them, for once her long legs not being able to catch up.

"Oh"… she kept saying. "Oh, oh, oh!"

Ginny blinked in confusion, why were they angry? She wondered for a moment. She looked up at Malfoy who's eyes had narrowed with the deepest annoyance. 

"Malfoy you bloody prat!" Ron roared suddenly upon them. "You've done it to many times! I'm going to _rip_ your head off!"

Ginny stepped back only just in time as Ron leapt on Malfoy and the two sixteen year old boys were suddenly on the ground hitting and fighting. Ginny let out an involuntary cry.

Malfoy kicked Ron off after a moment and then Harry leapt on him.

Ginny felt herself go pale with fright and she began to shake on the spot, however long she had wanted this to happen, it didn't feel like she thought it would have.

Hermione had grabbed Ginny by the hand and pulled her out of harms way.

"Stop it!" Ginny heard herself shrieking. "Stop, stop, stop!"

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" Hermione kept on saying, her brown eyes wide, her face pale.

Ginny stared down at the three boys hitting and fighting. The fight was definitely not fair, two against one. And she found herself, horrified at the thought, worrying for all _three_ of them. Why would she be worried about Malfoy?

Suddenly Malfoy used his powerful legs and knocked both boys backwards off of him and quickly scrambled to his feet. He had a bruise forming under his right eyes, and a long cut just along his hairline. The rest of his body had obviously been much more damaged then his face (Lucky for him). Harry was sporting a bleeding lip, and Ron was pinching a bleeding nose.

"What the bloody hell!" Malfoy roared obviously to angry to say anything intelligent.

"Just stay away from Ginny, Malfoy!" Ron roared, he was still trying to get at the tall blonde, but Harry was holding him back by the back of his robes. "I'll kill you if I ever see you near her again! I swear it!"

"Ron!" Ginny whimpered. "Leave it alone, he wasn't doing anything".

"Yeah right, he would have!" Ron snarled. "Don't try to be nice Ginny, he deserves to"-

Suddenly from around the corner came tiny Professor Flitwick. He stared at the three boys and blinked in surprise.

"Oh my, boys!" He squeaked. "What's happened here? You'd better go down the hospital wing and get Madam Pomfrey to mend those cuts up".

"We're fine here professor", Hermione beamed with false brightness. "Just a little accident, I'll handle everything", he nodded and disappeared into a classroom, all five completely shocked that her pathetic attempt of an excuse had actually worked. 

Malfoy touched a small line of blood forming at the top of his forehead. He smirked in this kind of insane little way, surprising all four of them.

"You'll get what's coming to you", his eyes rested on Ron, then Harry, and finally Hermione. "All three of you", his eyes then rested on Ginny and then he turned and walked stiffly away.

The four were silent for a moment until Ron turned on Ginny and pointed a finger at her.

"What's wrong with you?" He demanded. "_He wasn't doing anything_?" 

"He _wasn't_ doing anything Ron", Ginny felt herself become red, knowing the trio was looking down at her with studying eyes. 

"He might have done something! He was probably planning it right then and there! Your lucky we came around the corner!" Ron nearly screamed at her.

"Ron!" Hermione snarled back at him in return. "He probably _was_ going to do something, but what will it help by screaming at her? He probably snuck up on her!"

"I bet you anything he was the one that cursed her in the hall", Ron fumed turning on his heels and stomping away.

Hermione glared at his back and then looked at Harry with an equally angry glare, he shook his head.

"I'm not going to say anything", he said and Hermione nodded. "But… Well, Ginny you should be more careful. You know that Malfoy is a prat, just look out for him, okay?"

Ginny nodded and blushed under his concerned stare.

"Thanks"… she mumbled quietly. "For being worried about me".

The rest of the day passed in a haze. She decided to take a bath and took it in the prefect washroom. She sat in the tub full of rose smelling bubbles and crossed her arms over her chest. Her hair was held up in a simple bun atop her head and her brow was furrowed.

'When I see Harry, he makes me blush still, but when we touch it feels just like I'm touching anyone else', Ginny bit her lip in concentration. 'But when I see Malfoy, he absolutely infuriates me. I feel so much hate towards him, but when we touch he makes me tingle and feel… different'.

Ginny thought about this for a moment. "I obviously don't _like_ Malfoy", she said out loud to the washroom. "That's absolutely insane to even suggest! I hate him, he's a bloody prat. Maybe it's just all my hatred towards him that makes me feel weird when he touches me".

'But why does it feel good?' A nasty little voice in the back of her head whispered.

Ginny felt like slapping whoever the little voice belonged to. She scowled and slid down in the bath, sinking completely under the hot water.

The next day classes ended quickly, an excitement had spread through out the entire school about the upcoming Quidditch match. Near three o'clock the Gryffindor team got up from sitting in the Common Room and began to leave.

"Good luck Harry! Good luck Ron! Good luck Lola!" Ginny cheered from where she sat, trying to quickly finish a Potions essay.

"See you after the game!" Lola beamed in return.

When four o'clock arrived Ginny, the Gryffindors, and the rest of the school began to make their way down towards the Quidditch pitch. Hermione, Hagrid, Colin, and Ginny all hurried to get good seats at the very top of the stadium.

They took their seats and began to talk excitedly to one another. It was a perfect day for flying. The sky was clear and blue, and there wasn't the slightest hint of a breeze.

A couple of minutes past until a loud booming voice rose over all the others.

"Hello! And welcome to the first Quidditch match of the season! Gryffindor verses Ravenclaw!" A familiar voice boomed.

Ernie Macmillan had taken the place of Lee Jordan doing announcements. He was quite good at announcing as well, and everyone thought he was perfect for the job.

"Here comes the Ravenclaw team! Captain and seeker Cho Chang".

Ginny frowned but clapped anyway as the Ravenclaw team emerged dressed in blue Quidditch robes. Cho Chang beamed at everyone and waved happily to the crowd, her long black hair flowing out gracefully behind her. Several people cat called.

"And the Gryffindor team! Captain and seeker Harry Potter!"

The crowds went wild as the Gryffindor team emerged onto the pitch, completely drowning out the hisses and boo's coming from the Slytherins.

Harry and Ron both zoomed about the pitch and Ginny beamed proudly up at them, wishing that she were with them. How wonderful it would have been to smile and wave, and have people cheer for her.

"And Madam Hooch comes out with the balls!" Ernie announced loudly. "The bludgers and snitch are released! Remember you need to catch the snitch to end the game, and it earns you another a hundred and fifty points students! Madam Hooch has the quaffle, and she releases it!" There was a loud roar from the crowd. "Lola gets the quaffle and is going across the pitch! Oh! Wendy Peterson sends a bludger and… Lola gets past! She's going, going, going and… Lola scores! Ten points to Gryffindor!"

Ginny squealed in delight and hopped up and down clapping furiously.

The game continued on like this for ten minutes until the game was seventy Gryffindor and twenty Ravenclaw. Neither Harry or Cho had seen the snitch yet and were both circling high above the air. Ginny had tried not to notice the smiles they kept giving one another.

From beside her Colin was taking pictures, and Hagrid and Hermione were both very involved with the game.

"And Rebecca of Gryffindor gets the quaffle! Wow! She is an amazing player isn't she? She dives, misses a bludger, she's going! She passes it to Nathan who passes it over Ravenclaw chaser Samuel's head, and back to Rebecca! Rebecca is going, she- Oh god! Is she still alive?"

As Rebecca had drawn near to the Ravenclaw keeper both Ravenclaw beaters had sent two bludgers at her. One smashed into the side of her head and the other into her chest. She flung from her broom, hit the metal hoop and began to fall. The Ravenclaw keeper caught her and slowly brought her down to the ground.

"Oh my goodness!" Hermione was shrieking digging her nails into her cheeks. "Oh! Do you think Rebecca is alright?"

Even though Ginny did not like Rebecca, she still felt very worried. Colin had begun taking pictures like mad.

The two teams, Madam Hooch, and several teachers had come down onto the pitch. The crowds of students were shouting and talking loudly together, the Slytherins were laughing and pointing down at the pitch.

Without anyone noticing as Harry had came down to check on Rebecca, he caught the snitch that had suddenly appeared with out a second though.

"Is she alright?" Harry shouted over the noise. "Professors? Madam? Is Rebecca alright?"

After a few confused minutes Rebecca was brought out of the pitch on a stretcher, pale as marble and unconscious. Ginny stared down at the pitch where the two teams were chattering together. Lola looked pale but had a smile on her face as she talked to Nathan, it didn't seem to anyone that Rebecca's injury was a big problem. Yet Ginny's eyes were locked on Harry who was talking happily to Cho.

Cho was even shorter then herself, and was ten times prettier. Cho stuck out her hand and she noticed, even from her seat, that Harry blushed and took her hand quickly. They shook hands and turned their separate ways.

Ginny wrinkled her nose and crossed her arms. She was angry and jealous, no denying that, but she wasn't fuming, and that got her even angrier. Why wasn't she screaming with rage?

"Oh I don't even know what's happening any more!" Ginny moaned and stomped away leaving a completely bewildered Colin Creevey staring after her.

Ginny was in the Common room about six thirty finishing her homework when the Gryffindor team arrived. They all looked clean and content.

Hermione who was sitting beside Ginny raised a brow when they entered.

"How is she?" She asked when Ron and Harry came and took seats beside them.

"Not good", Ron said shaking his head, but was grinning. "Did you see Harry? He was just zooming down towards the ground to go see if Rebecca was okay, stuck his hand out casually, caught the snitch, and then was all 'Is she okay?'"

"Not good?" Hermione repeated ignoring Ron's last sentence. "What do you mean not good?"

"Well", Harry hesitated. "She's sort of unconscious for the time being… Madam Pomfrey said she might be unconscious for a few days, and that she won't be able to play any Quidditch any time soon", Harry was looking down at the ground and then brought his eyes up to rest on Ginny. "So, I hope Lola's flying lessons are doing you some good Ginny. Because I promised you a spot on the team if something happened, are you up to it?"

Ginny nearly slid out of her seat from shock. She felt excitement and fright flood through her small body and all she could manage was to nod vigorously.

"Brilliant!" Hermione exclaimed beaming proudly at Ginny, obviously forgetting to worry about Rebecca any further.

"Great", Harry smiled and Ron grinned at her with a wink. "We'll be having practices every day Ginny, our next match is two weeks from now, and you need to get the practice it. Plus it's against Slytherin".

Ginny felt herself pale slightly, Malfoy was seeker of the Slytherin team.

"Okay! I'll be there!" She smiled feeling a flush come up on her cheeks.

"Excellent".

Ginny settled back in her seat and closed her eyes. She could imagine herself in flowing scarlet Quidditch robes, her hair flowing behind her. People cheering her and waving, Colin clicking pictures, herself waving her hand and smiling.

She turned and there was Harry beaming at her, admiration and pride in his eyes… But his eyes weren't green, they were grey. His hair was becoming lighter and before Ginny could imagine any more she opened her eyes and shook her head so violently it began to thump.

'What am I thinking? He's gotten me so mad lately, that now he's even invading my imagination! That prat!'

Draco was furious after the encounter with Potter and Weasley. They had nerve jumping on him like that! He hadn't even been doing anything… yet anyway. 

He attended the Quidditch match the next day and laughed heartily when Rebecca was knocked violently out of the sky, but had narrowed his eyes at Potter's spectacular and very casual capture of the snitch.

Without noticing what he was doing his eyes had glided over the crowds of Gryffindors waving scarlet banners and shouting angrily.

His eyes rested on a particular scarlet haired girl looking down with wide worried eyes. Colin was hopping about her like an idiot snapping pictures and Granger appeared as though she were about to have a fatal heart attack. Ginny appeared to be the calmest of the three students there, except perhaps the large oaf Hagrid, who was standing just behind them.

His eyes narrowed slightly, she had been about to answer him when her brother and Potter had interrupted. He could not help but let curiosity get the better of him and wonder what it was that she had been about to say. 

After the game the news spread quickly that Rebecca was out of it for most of the season and that Ginny Weasley would be taking her place. For some odd reason, this had not thrilled Draco as he had thought it would.

He knew that he should have been dearly wanting to see her fly from her broom, see her brown eyes widen in shock as she fell. But somehow he felt different, he felt slightly… No! He wouldn't even say such a thing even to himself!

Yet he was angry with her, furious at the way she had reacted in the kitchen. Why had she acted as though his touch had burned her? Why had she been angry after it? He hadn't exactly been thrilled when their fingers touched, but he had not acted in such an offensive way. Every girl wished to have a touch from him and few had received such a great honour.

The reason why he had asked her if she had wanted a truce was to see if she had really meant it. He had quite enjoyed fighting with her, and if he was any good at judging people, he had believed she had enjoyed getting him in trouble just as much.

Draco lay back in his bed that night lost in thoughts. He had been receiving letters from his mother each day with a box of sweets, but he had received no answer from his father. He found this uncomforting, for his father normally wrote each week.

His thoughts drifted to Potter, Weasley, and Granger. He couldn't believe how utterly stupid they all were. They were all thick headed in his opinion, even Granger. They could never really watch out for each other. Every year one of them nearly died, and they could never save each other from it. They weren't even good enough to save Ginny from him. If he had someone to watch out over, he would make sure they were never to get hurt. He didn't have anyone like that though, Crabbe and Goyle were completely capable of watching out after themselves.

The dormitory door creaked open and Draco was brought out of his thoughts. He propped himself up on his elbows to see Crabbe and Goyle huddle in.

He lay back down and closed his eyes, his thoughts now on Quidditch. They would definitely need to practice, the Gryffindor's had a far better team then he had originally suspected…

Ginny felt the two weeks went by much to quickly. Though each day had seemed like a hundred years to her. The practices were hard and exhausting, she knew the rules and how to play, but she had to learn to get past the other players. She was a fairly good flyer now, but no where near as good as the others were, and much to her dismay, she even admitted to _herself _that Rebecca was a far better player.

Ron and Harry both pushed her hard and were encouraging. Every day Hermione and Colin would sit in the bleachers, even if the air was like ice and sleet was pouring from the sky. They would be bundled up and they would watch with sparkling eyes.

Classes were a daze and Ginny felt herself more then once drifting off into sleep. Colin however was quick to prod her awake with a gentle smile, more then once he would take a picture to get her attention. The Slytherins would cackle and hiss whenever she went past, but all the other houses would whisper words of encouragement to her.

When the Quidditch match drew near she felt small amounts of fear creep into her body, mainly her stomach. The only reason she was able to finish her schoolwork and stay caught up was because of Hermione. All of her time was spent either on practice, homework, or sleeping. She was however happy of all the work, because during the two weeks she didn't think of Draco Malfoy all that much.

Much to her discomfort the day of the Quidditch match arrived. Ginny woke feeling sick to her stomach and slightly light headed. Her body felt sore from so many nights of seemingly endless practice. Yet what was even more discomforting was the fact that three people were staring down at her.

"What are you doing?" Ginny mumbled, feeling to sleepy and sick to be startled.

Leikela, Dinah, and Katherine were all staring down at her with sparkling eyes.

"We're going to eat breakfast with you this morning Gin", Katherine said pointedly.

"Oh?" Ginny slowly sat herself up.

The three girls were already completely dressed in their Hogwarts robes, their hair and make up was done, and they were wearing their hats.

"So hurry up", Leikela ordered.

It took a long time for Ginny to get ready. She stretched several times before her muscles felt ready to work properly. She had had to hide in the bathroom to get away from the three girls, who had been staring at her.

She wondered why they suddenly wanted to have breakfast with her. They had before of course eaten together and gone places together, but they had never been close. Ginny was closest to Colin then anyone else in their year, and that had always bothered the girls.

She dressed into her school robes and ran a brush through her scarlet hair. She looked pale as usual, but her brown eyes seemed oddly bright. She sighed staring at her reflection and gently shook her head in dismay. Why couldn't she be beautiful? Why couldn't she own anything beautiful? Why couldn't she have anything beautiful?

She simply left her hair down and slung her backpack over her shoulder. She opened the door for the bathroom and her eyes widened to find that the three girls were waiting for her. Dinah threw an arm around Ginny's shoulders and led her towards the Great Hall.

During most of breakfast the three girls held up a conversation completely on hair accessories. Ginny felt like sinking into the floor and dying, she had never been so completely bored in her entire life.

When someone tapped Ginny on the shoulder she was more then able to whirl around with begging eyes. She found Harry and Ron staring down at her and a smile broke out on her lips.

"Can we have a word with you Ginny?" Harry asked, raising a brow.

Ginny nodded, gave the girls an apologetic look, and leapt up from her seat more then thankful. The two sixteen year old boys led her down the Gryffindor table to where Hermione was munching on toast. Hermione waved brightly and Ginny sank down into a seat beside her. Harry and Ron both sank down into seats beside Ginny, Harry sat beside her.

"Ron thought we should help you out a bit", Harry said when Ron and Hermione began to talk. "You looked quite bored with those girls".

Ginny smiled thankfully. "Yeah thanks Harry!"

"Are you nervous about today?" He then asked her softly.

Ginny was silent, but her head was screaming yes. She felt her stomach give a funny lurch before she nodded slightly. Harry nodded and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. Ginny frowned thoughtfully at this gesture, it didn't make her shiver… and it didn't make her blush. She was utterly confused.

"Don't worry Ginny", Harry told her. "You've greatly improved, and I'm sure you'll do great".

"Thanks", she murmured feeling anything but in high spirits.

When three o'clock came rain was pouring down from the sky in buckets of ice. Ginny stood in the Gryffindor change room with the rest of the team. She was easily the smallest of them all, they all seemed to tower over her tiny form. She however felt proud and important, excitement and fear rushing through her all at once. She was dressed in scarlet Quidditch robes that were much lighter then they appeared.

She could hear the wind rushing outside and shuttered lightly. The November winds were harsh and icy, and the ground was a thick layer of mud.

They all stood together and immediately Lola draped an arm around Ginny's shoulder. Ginny looked up nervously, but managed a smile when she saw Lola beaming down at her confidently.

She looked at the others standing around her and sighed. Harry smiled at them all and fixed his glasses.

"Alright team", he said calmly. "I know we'll do great! I don't have a doubt in my mind that we all won't play brilliantly! Try your hardest and remember to have fun".

"And if you get the chance to push a Slytherin off their broomstick, do so", Ron added cheerfully and everyone laughed.

"Let's head out!"

"Come on Gin", Lola said happily leading her out, her arm still draped about her shoulder.

"You'll do great Ginny, don't worry. You fly much better then you did before", Nathan, the other Gryffindor chaser told her cheerfully.

"Yeah Gin, besides you won't have to worry. We'll have the bludgers covered, nothing will happen to you like what happened to Rebecca", Lewis, one of the Gryffindor Beaters informed her, and Craig, the other beater, nodded in agreement.

"I'm kind of glad she's not playing anymore", Craig said as they reached the doors leading out into the pitch. "She was kind of a bi"- yet the rest of his words were drowned out by the sudden roar of wind as the doors swung open.

"Good luck", Ginny heard Harry whisper in her ear.

Draco flew high above the rest of the players. The Gryffindors were still yet to come out onto the pitch. The wind was blowing violently and he scowled in distaste as he flew slightly off course. The wind would be a definite problem, however the players on the Slytherin team were much heavier and could stay in place longer then the Gryffindor team probably could. 

His long emerald Quidditch robes were billowing slightly in the wind, and he wondered vaguely how out of place his hair looked. He absent-mindedly slicked his hair back and looked down at the crowds of people. Three quarters of the crowd were bearing banners and streamers of scarlet, and the last quarter bore things of emerald. 

The Gryffindor door gates swung open and the Gryffindor team rose into the air for a few practice laps. He could barely hear Justin Finch-Fletchley but it didn't matter. His eyes scanned the pitch and he quickly spotted Potter and Weasley, his eyes narrowed in hatred. However his eyes then drifted to where a tiny figure was flying through the air.

Ginny Weasley had indeed become a fairly good flyer, she wasn't spectacular, or anywhere near as good a flyer as Rebecca was, but she could stay on her broomstick.

Even through the wind that burned his eyes he could see the camera flashes of Colin Creevey's camera. His eyes narrowed irritably, did that kid even have a life? All he ever did was take pictures of Potter… and Ginny. He wondered then if Colin had a crush on her? Something that felt very much like anger surged through his body and he shook his head in slight surprise. That had been odd.

A hurried moment past and everyone took their places on the pitch, waiting for the balls to be released.

Potter was facing him and the two locked eyes, brilliant green against steel grey. Their eyes both narrowed in hatred and they tightened their grips on the handles of their broomsticks.

"Good luck Potter", he hissed sardonically.

"If you touch Ginny, I'll murder you", Potter hissed in return and Draco simply smirked icily.

Suddenly from below the house teams lurched forward and a flash of red was seen before Lola of Gryffindor was flying away with it held under her arm.

Potter rose high above the stadium and Malfoy followed after him. He kept glancing back with eyes of utter hatred and Draco, despite his anger, found this quite amusing. 

Draco forced his attention away from Potter and began to scan the pitch below with his eyes narrowed. He was furious at the rain and wind that burned his eyes and soaked through his robes. He held himself in place and stared down below. Everything just seemed like a big blur but he did his best to spot any hint of gold.

He was distracted though by the game commencing below, since he could not hear Justin Finch-Fletchley he watched for himself.

He knew immediately that they were losing just on impulse. He watched as Lola and Nathan of Gryffindor swerved expertly through the other players and dodged bludgers. Surprisingly, Ginny was right there with them. He was impressed that she could actually catch up and take part in the rough game. However, she was not as good as dodging things as Lola and Nathan were. Several times bludgers skimmed her head or body, and once or twice she was hit in the arm. Yet she caught right up with them and took part in the passing of the quaffle.

He watched as Lola scored another goal and narrowed his eyes in the deepest annoyance before returning his attention back to his own job. Potter was still sitting in the same position as before, his eyes scanning the area below.

Ten minutes later the game became violently dangerous. The snitch had not yet been seen by either Potter or Draco. He was sure that it had made an appearance but neither Potter or himself had been able to spot it.

The players below were however becoming quite rough. The beaters were now hitting bludgers in every direction possible, even at each other. The chasers were staying in tight knit-groups and all appeared to be splattered in mud. It appeared as though Lola had been knocked off her broomstick and landed in the mud when he had not been looking.

Draco hissed between his teeth and lowered closer to the game, he could not see so high up! Potter followed his leave and he was aggravated by this.

They began to circle the pitch and their eyes locked hatefully once more for a minute or so.

Draco growled and shook his head, and strands of blonde hair stuck to his forehead. He quickly slicked back his hair and squeezed his eyes tightly shut for a moment. They were stinging and sore from the wind and rain.

That's when he saw it, a glint of shimmering gold. He leaned forward and shot across the pitch like a bullet, Potter was directly behind him, and then beside him.

The snitch was hiding near the players who were struggling over the quaffle. Both Potter and himself pushed their broomsticks to their limits and then something happened that Malfoy regretted.

He didn't understand it then, but afterwards he went over it in his mind and hated himself for it. The chasers came forward in a rush, Ginny was in possession of the quaffle. Bludgers came from every direction and Malfoy was directly in their path. They missed him by inches and then there was a scream.

He hadn't meant to do it, he hadn't meant to catch her!

Things had gotten so very violent that in between her shivers Ginny was trembling with terror. She was doing fairly alright, but her right arm was throbbing with pain from where a bludger had struck her. 

They were flying low on their broomsticks and Nathan had just received the quaffle from Lola and he was zooming towards the Slytherin keeper. He passed it back to Lola who was flying so very close to Ginny. Two Slytherin chasers were suddenly on her, and then the quaffle was in Ginny's arms.

Malfoy and Harry flew by a second later, a flash of gold shocked her and she slowed her pace, then she was being thrown from her broomstick as a Slytherin chaser crashed harshly into her from behind.

A terrified scream left her lips and she felt as though she were flying downwards into a blur of burning wind and ice rain. 

Her arms snatched at the air as though she were going to catch something, and then it happened. Everything went silent all around her as a hand closed around her left wrist and she was halted painfully in the air. 

Slowly she lifted her eyes and they locked with those of storm grey. She forgot everything then, and it was only her and Draco Malfoy there. Draco, hanging half way off of his broomstick holding onto her.

Draco Malfoy had undoubtfully saved her life, and the shivers spreading through out her body were not from pain or fear any longer.  
Then noise came rushing back into existence as two strong arms wrapped around her waist and yanked her from Malfoy's grip. She was being seated on a broomstick, with someone's arms about her in a protecting manner.

"Are you alright Ginny?" Harry's voice asked her, his warm breath on her cheek, but her eyes were locked on Malfoy's.

He had saved her from falling fifty feet to the ground. Why? He was simply sitting on his broomstick, his eyes still locked with hers. The expression on his face and in his eyes were unreadable.

~~~

Ginny sat motionless in the changing room. She was completely soaked through and splattered head to toe in mud. Her right arm was throbbing, and the entire left side of her body was aching. Yet her eyes were locked on her hands, clasped in her lap. 

There was no such thing as noise any longer, or people for that matter. She didn't not notice or hear Harry and the rest of the team standing about her and arguing.

'Why did he catch me?' She wondered. 'Why didn't he let me fall? Why didn't he let me hit the ground and laugh? Why did he hold on… he had time to correct his mistake. I don't understand any of this!'

Suddenly Ginny was being shaken and she blinked in surprise, as though just realizing there were other people in the room with her.

"Ginny are you alright?" Ron was peering into her brown eyes with his own. He looked rather tired. "Are you alright?"

Ginny nodded. She was alive wasn't she? Malfoy had caught her, why wouldn't she be alright?

"I'm fine", she answered hoarsely. "A little sore, but that's it".

"Did Malfoy say anything to you?" Harry pushed Ron out of the way. 

Ginny closed her eyes and the memory of Malfoy holding her by the wrist came back full force. He hadn't said anything… why had his face and eyes seemed so emotionless? Or had there been emotion there that she had not been able to detect?

"Ginny! Did Malfoy say anything to you?" Harry repeated shaking her slightly.

"No", she answered once more, and then frowned slightly. "Who won the game?" She couldn't rightly remember anything after Harry had taken her away from Malfoy's stare.

"We did Ginny, but that's not important right now", Harry informed her. "Malfoy didn't say anything? He wasn't the one who pushed you off your broomstick? He wasn't about to let you fall? He didn't say or do anything?"

"One of those bloody chasers rammed her from behind", Nathan spoke up from behind Ron. "I saw it, she flew right through the air".

"Then Malfoy just reached out, grabbed her wrist, and caught her", Lola finished off and the room became silent.

"Ginny! Was Malfoy doing any of the things Harry asked?" Ron asked angrily making his sister look at him.

"No!" Ginny said quietly into the suddenly silent change room. "He didn't do anything or say anything. He just caught me and then Harry took me away".

She blinked up at the bleary faces of her team-mates standing around her. She felt like dissolving into tears, she was so very confused.

There were so many questions. Why? Why did Malfoy make her tingle? Why did he catch her? Why had he wanted a truce? Why was he making her think about him? 

Ginny didn't talk to anyone and her team-mates gave up on trying to talk to her. She continued to simply glaze completely over and be lost in her thoughts, and no one could get her attention without thoroughly shaking her.

She took a long hot shower and changed back into her school robes. She hurried back to the Gryffindor tower and rushed past everyone in the Common Room up to the fifth year dorms. She climbed into bed completely dressed and clamped her eyes shut.

She didn't want to think about anything any more, she just wanted to sleep and forget everything.

However even her dreams seemed to be against her, because they simply repeated the event of her falling over and over again. She woke the next morning aching, tired, and confused with only the thoughts of Draco Malfoy in her mind.

_*** A/N Chapter nine is done! Actually there was supposed to be more, but I decided to cut it short and do the rest of it in the next chapter. Something might be happening next chapter, something that you might have been wanting to happen for a while now *hint, hint, wink, wink*. Get my drift? Please Read and Review! And thank you to all the people that already have!_

Okay, I'm a Draco and Hermione fan to. But lately I've been reading a bunch of stories where Hermione it being hit by Draco and she's just some abused snivelling girlfriend. I seriously don't think Hermione would put up with that. If Draco ever hit her I totally believe she'd hit him right back or curse him or something like that. It's not in her character to be weak, she always pulls through on top! 

Ooooh! I saw The Four Feathers today! It was such a good movie, you have to be into serious type movies to watch it though. I personally thought it was excellent though. I want to see Tuck Everlasting to! Anyone seen it? Tell me if it's good or not please!

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